The end of a press campaign against road toll charges was celebrated with an eight-page supplement and an open-top bus ride.

Dundee's morning broadsheet The Courier has been fighting for the charges to be removed on the Tay and Forth bridges, in east Scotland.

The paper was deluged with more than 10,000 comments and letters from readers backing the pledge after similar charges were removed in the west of the country.

The Courier printed the special supplement celebrating its campaign while Scottish politicians took a ride across the Forth on an open-top bus carrying a Courier banner.

Political editor Steve Bargeton told holdthefrontpage: "I've been involved for the whole 22 months and it's been very much a political story from the word go.

"It goes back to when the Skye and Erskine bridges went toll free.

"That prompted me to go to the editor about starting a campaign.

"Around 35,000 vehicles use the two bridges everyday.

"We campaigned entirely on the principal of fairness and we engaged in arguments of costs."

The campaign focussed on politicians at the Scottish Executive which at the time was run by a Labour and Lib-Dem coalition.

Steve said that continual lobbying of the various MSPs helped tremendously and the toll issue also played its part in the May 2007 elections.

He added: "The Scottish National Party were quite keen to take tolls off the bridges but they were not in power at the time.

"We got the SNP on board in opposition and there was a kind of feeling the government wasn't listening before the election.

"Alex Salmond [current First Minister] said the first thing they would do would be to remove the tolls.

"I think that was a symbol of them doing something they said they would do, something tangible."

When the bridge was officially opened up toll-free a special ceremony was held including photos of the last paying customer as well as a bottle of champagne for the first freebie – a rather bemused late shift worker from a nearby Tesco.

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