Free tunnel access for emergency vehicles

An ambulance carrying a pregnant Wirral woman was stopped at Wallasey tunnel over £1.70 toll of Friday 7th Aug 2015.

An investigation has been launched after the ambulance carrying 31-year-old was made to pull over at the toll booths at the Wallasey tunnel.The mother to be from Birkenhead, was only 29 weeks pregnant but expected to give birth at any point.
She was being transferred back to Arrowe Park Hospital from Ormskirk Hospital, where she had been taken due to a lack of space in the Wirral hospital’s special baby unit. But on Thursday night, space was made available for her and she was transferred back to Wirral on an emergency run, although the ambulance’s blue lights were not active.

As they approached the tunnel, the woman at the kiosk asked the ambulance driver for a tag. The ambulance driver told her they hadn’t got one because they were from Lancashire and were just on a job. They were then told that they had to pay the toll. The ambulance driver explained that they were on an emergency job, and had a patient in the back who is being transferred’ but the toll operative said they still had to pay.
The ambulance was then made to pull to one side while a manager for the tunnel operator was contacted before the issue could be resolved.
This could have cost a life for the sake of £1.70p. Why do the emergency services have to pay at all.?

Mersey travel estimated that they collected £185,000 last year from emergency services.