THE UK’s first secret toll road has cost unsuspecting taxpayers an eye-watering £700million.
A YouTuber sleuth stumbled upon the discovery that a Government ordered 14-mile stretch of motorway has been costing Brits for the past three decades.
Auto Shenanigans found out the road had been built in 1998 by a private company and it runs between Alconbury and Peterborough.
By the time the lease ends in 2026, Road Management Group of Peterborough will have amassed £700 million.
This staggering figure is more than two-and-a-half times the amount it would have cost if the Government had built it themselves.
It came after the Government issued a lot of Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) contracts in the 1990s.
The A1 shadow toll road was constructed under this type of contract, and the Government has been paying them back over the past 30 years with taxpayer money.
Auto Shenanigans estimated 75,000 cars use the stretch of road everyday through collecting his own data.
This would mean they pay 85p a time and the company will accumulate £700 million by 2026.
Meanwhile it would have been a fraction of the cost, at £285, if the Government had built it themselves.
