CALLS have been made for a 'smart card' system at the Swinford Toll Bridge to be included in major improvements to cut daily traffic jams.

County councillor Charles Mathew said the £400,000 scheme to improve journey times between Oxford and Eynsham could be paid for by scrapping plans for a bus priority lane.

As part of a wider £36m scheme, Oxfordshire County Council has proposed the short stretch of bus lane on the approach to the toll bridge but Mr Mathew said it would not deliver "value for money".

The crossing over the Thames is a notorious bottleneck, with vehicles forced to stop to pay the toll and the narrow carriageway slowing passage for buses and lorries.

Mr Mathew said the council should instead back proposals put forward by Siemens, which produces magnets for medical use at its nearby base.

The company, which has about 500 staff in Eynsham, has produced plans for a system that would let drivers pay electronically without having to stop.

Mr Mathew added: "There are queues every day at the toll bridge because of the way tolls are being collected.

"It could be done more efficiently using a smart card system and we have discussed this at some length with the bridge owner."

Mr Mathew said modelling carried out for the county council showed an electronic system could reduce congestion by as much as 60 per cent.

The idea for electronic payments was first proposed by Siemens in 2013 but Mr Mathew said the package of proposals unveiled by the county council to improve the A40 last year meant there was now an opportunity to fund it.

He said: "It is clear that the bus lane in the first phase of A40 work is no longer going to be necessary and would not be good value for money.

"So there could be some money available to loan to the bridge owner.

"There are other ways of raising it, like raising the tolls, but in my opinion there should not be an increase."

But getting funding for the scheme has proved difficult, as the county council refuses to provide cash for a scheme that would result in commercial gain for a private company.

Cabinet member for transport David Nimmo Smith said: "We are aware of the plans put forward by Siemens and the bridge owner and clearly everyone wants to look at ways of increasing throughput.

"As part of that, we are looking at a bus lane, but this is a private bridge on private land and we cannot put public money towards it.

"It is a bit of an anomaly."

According to the Land Registry, Robert Standing, of London, is the current owner of the toll bridge after he bought it for £1.08m in January 2010.

One of the last in Britain to be in private hands, it is believed to have a gross annual income of around £190,000 and affords its owner several tax exemptions.