FORMER ECHO EDITOR, JIM WORSDALE, OFFERS HIS VIEW ON THE TOLL LEVIED AT THE DARTFORD CROSSING AND SEAFRONT LITTER ALONG THE FORESHORE PATH FROM SHOEBURY EAST BEACH TO SHOEBURY COMMON BEACH.

THE Automobile Association has spoken out in recent days about the awful shambles that is the Dartford crossing and said something really ought to be done about it.

I’ve listened. So, no doubt, have many others.

But if anyone in a position of power has listened, you surely can bet that he or she will take not the slightest notice.

The jams will continue to lengthen and trying to get to and from our county of Essex along this route will become more and more frustrating and time consuming.

The AA reckons congestion has worsened since car tolls were raised from a quid to £1.50 almost a year ago.

More drivers suddenly need to come up with more change, when so many were used to chucking a pound coin into the greedy baskets.

The proposed solution? Return to the £1 fee or remove the southbound toll – that’s the one for the bridge.

Decent ideas, eh? But the whole sorry shambles is a disgrace, of course, because for years us motorists were promised once tolls had paid for the tunnels and the bridge, the payments would be scrapped.

Traffic would travel for free, and, of course, much more freely.

If you believe politicians’ promises you are a very trusting and charitable person. Or maybe lacking the kind of cynicism associated with the likes of this scribe, who has heard many pledges that somehow went unfulfilled.

We know that, time and again, vast sums are wasted on the whim of political parties, politicians, ministers and others we hope and trust will budget and behave in our very best interests.

We know that to try to make up for such waste – and to have yet more money to waste – income from the likes of tolls is a cash cow for authority to milk endlessly.

Dartford Tunnel? Creepford, more like. Queen Elizabeth bridge? A right royal takeon, more like.

ANYWAY, I must calm down. I read somewhere the other day that psychologists believe later life tends to be a golden age.

In spite of possible worries about ill health, income, changes in social status and bereavement, older adults generally make the best of the time they have left, say the trick cyclists.

Apparently, what us ancients do is avoid situations that make us feel sad or stressed.

I take the point, because I most certainly try to avoid the Dartford crossing, as mentioned earlier.

FOOLISHLY, though, I thought a stroll along the latest stretch of Southend’s foreshore pathway, from Shoebury East Beach to the Common, would be a non-stressful, refreshing exercise.

So I set best foot forward, but it turned out to be a sad experience. The path, the cycle path and the estuary and mouth-of-Thames views from this edge of the former Garrison lands are splendid.

Much else is depressing and annoying, not least the much-damaged former officers’ mess building.

The walkway edging the seashore gives a clear view of stretches of beaches littered with old iron, rocks and the rotting, badly deteriorated and seemingly now useless breakwaters.

Ugly, graffiti-stained concrete buildings once used for goodness knows what military purposes, demand demolition and removal.

As do stretches of ugly wire fencing and posts that appear not longer needed or necessary.

The Great British Public, now given access to what once was guarded and barred, have done as one sadly would expect.

They have dumped litter in various directions. How, when and by whom all this may be cleared and turned into the golden potential of this great site is beyond estimation.