"The last civil disobedience act in the Highlands.”
Campaigners have re-launched a legal challenge over the imposition of tolls on the Skye Bridge, 30 years after the bridge was opened.
In what was one of bitterest community campaigns in Scottish history, Skye and Kyle Against Tolls (SKAT) was launched to oppose the hugely expensive payments that would have seen residents pay £11.40 compared to 80p for the Forth Road Bridge in 2004.
Now SKAT founder, Robbie the Pict, says he has evidence that there was incomplete paperwork to grant a tolls licence and has sent documentation to the police.
The force has confirmed it is awaiting guidance from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
In all, 130 people were prosecuted for non-payment of tolls.
Robbie said: “I’ve got concrete evidence that the subordinate legislation, that the laws that should have been put in place to erect a toll regime, was not in proper order. It wasn’t made as required by Scots law, and I can prove that.”
He added: "We've reached base camp at Everest and we are ready for the push," he said.
"I'm rejuvenated every time the problem is re-recognised because the problem is not going to go away, I'm not going to go away.
"We're not the people who should've been criminalised."
The then Scottish Executive stopped the tolls after buying the bridge for £27m from its American owners which used the so-called Private Finance Initiative to fund the bridge.
Tolls raised £33m from the public.
Local councillor Margaret Paterson said: “It was just not fair, and I believe that you should fight for what you believe in.”
Councillor Drew Millar spent a night in a police cell after refusing to pay the toll.
He said: “The whole spectrum of the community was behind us, from a roadsweeper to a doctor basically, from a teacher to a student. It was absolutely amazing.”
He said that while an economic boost was created by the crossing, the community united to prove it wouldn’t be browbeaten.
“I think to have a 24-hour, free link to the mainland is hugely important, especially nowadays,” he said.
“It’s been a fantastic thing for Skye – and the SKAT campaign, I think, will go down in history as perhaps the last civil disobedience act in the Highlands.”
Caroline Clouston of the Kyleakin Local History Society, added: “We were busy leading up to the opening of the bridge because we had all these bridge workers in the village, which really gave us a boost. And then the village just went dead as does any village that’s bypassed, I’m sure.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The Assignation Statement referred to was made in accordance with all the relevant legislation.”
