Traffic on the Skye Bridge has increased by 50% since the tolls were removed, according to figures released yesterday.

Overall, the economic benefit to users of the bridge since it opened in 1995 is already close to £100m and is likely to reach almost £400m over the next 60 years. It has also helped Skye hold its population.

The Skye Bridge Socio Economic Impact Study, carried out by Edinburgh-based consultants DHC for Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), and Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership, also found the long running anti-tolls campaign acted as a positive marketing tool for the island.

Free passage across the bridge, introduced at Christmas, 2004, was found to have stimulated an improvement in the labour market as people began to cross to and from the island for work. In a single year, the cost benefit comparison of the free bridge with the ferry services was £12.2m, half from the tolls removal.

The survey data, however, did not identify any significant positive impact on businesses and employment from the removal of the tolls. The study found that local feelings about the bridge also changed. "The removal of the bridge tolls has changed the perspective of households in relation to the bridge. The bridge is almost universally supported as an asset to the area, whereas it was previously viewed negatively by many," it stated.

Many islanders' views of the bridge were shaped by the long running anti-tolls campaign which was condemned by government. However, the consultants took a different view. "The bridge, and the controversy relating to the tolls, has helped to market Skye across the UK and overseas. Visitors are well aware of the Skye toll controversy, suggesting the area has derived significant benefit from this marketing," the report concludes.

Commenting on the findings, Robbie the Pict, the veteran anti-tolls campaigner, said: "We knew the tolls were putting visitors off because they were contacting us and telling us that they wouldn't be back until these ridiculous toll were removed.

"We knew of people turning at the bridge. I think the Scottish David and Goliath story of islanders fighting against this PFI appealed. Over the years we had messages of support from all over the world."

Robert Muir, area director of HIE Skye and Wester Ross, said: "I am particularly pleased that the findings which came out of the focus groups show that in the early 1990s the young folk would leave the island as soon as they got the chance - but now they are staying."

Meanwhile, it is expected that the attention of the Scottish Parliament will soon move to the question of removing tolls from the Tay and Forth bridges.

Following their abolition on the Skye Bridge, tolls were subsequently removed from the Erskine Bridge just over one year ago. In the last parliament, the SNP raised the issue of the Tay and Forth crossings without winning sufficient support.

The Tories are also committed to removing them from both bridges, but even together they would still be one vote short of the required 65 for a majority. The focus of attention will shift to Labour's Fife MSPs to see what they support. Labour and the LibDems currently back abolition on the Tay but would charge single-driver vehicles on the Forth. The Greens favour "smart tolls" on both.