I am saddened to read (September 25) that motorists are taunting the toll collectors, who face redundancy on the Forth Road Bridge. Having spent more than 40 years of my life in the engineering/construction industry, I am no stranger to redundancy and, having viewed it from both sides of the fence (as an employer and employee), I am well aware of the pain redundancy causes.

When one is handed one's P45 it is not a nice feeling, but in my case it was not unexpected as working on the construction of power stations, oil rigs and ships I did not expect to be kept on when the contract was completed.

So while I have some sympathy for the toll collectors on the Forth Road Bridge, theirs was never meant to be a permanent job. If the politicians had kept the promise they made to the Westminster Parliament - which approved the collection of tolls - they should have been removed in 1995. The toll collectors have had a 12-year extension to their expected contract period owing to politicians who could not let go of the goose that laid their golden egg.

The statement in your article, which suggests that the abuse of the toll collectors is a by-product of the campaign to remove the bridge tolls, is without foundation. As the major opponent of tolls, National Alliance Against Tolls (NAAT) has never criticised those who have to carry out the collection of tolls and supports the prosecution of anyone who abuses people going about their work. NAAT only attacked the unfair system that necessitated collection and those who espoused that unfair tax.

Hopefully, the toll booths will soon be demolished and the workers made redundant by this move will find work in businesses boosted by the economic revival this long-overdue liberation will bring to Fife, Tayside and the Lothians.

Tom Minogue, Scottish spokesperson for NAAT, 94 Victoria Terrace, Dunfemline.