Thread: Manchester Congestion (tax) Charge

looks like the Congestion Charge (tax) is likely to go to Public referendum, something the local authority was opposed to initially, no surprise.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/m...er/7472917.stm

there is no guarantee that public transport will be upgraded, knowing the lessons of London CC, the public transport hasn't been improved much and the money seemed to have been used for something else.

I think a lesson has been learned from this and many Mancunians are opposed to the CC, they simply have no faith with the local councils, I would feel the same, my Brother lives in Manchester with his partner and daughter, If I want to visit my Neice, I would have to pay silly money to do so, I would object to it as well.

It a w@nk idea, pure and simple

The idea behind it (only paying in certain directions at certain times of day - i.e. rush hour) isn't too bad but, as you say, their chances of pulling it off are small. They're politicians, after all!

I believe someone outside the planning team did the maths and realised that the numbers had been massaged. There was no way to pay off the loan in the timeframe given the predicted use. Not a good start, really.

I'm not too fussed anyway - Stockport council are one of the three against the idea and calling for the referendum, and I quite like my local councillors.

Get a motorbike or use the bus.

MSR

Ever been on a bus through Stockport and into Manchester?

As someone who has a Manchester postal address for UK I must say that the introduction of Trams, some ten years or so ago was a brilliant idea.
john

Richard Leese is trying to ensure that Greater Manchester gets the Transport Innovation Fund money that the Department for Transport has promised it.

...up to £3 billion of funding will be available for transport improvements in Greater Manchester. This comprises Government grants of £1.5 billion, £1.2 billion of local funding supported by future revenue from a limited peak time only congestion charge and £0.1 billion of third party contributions.

So, to get £1.5 billion of central government money, the 10 Greater Manchester authorities has to come up with £1.2 billion from congestion charging.

...a two-thirds majority by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) would trigger the application for the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) cash.

But it's looking doubtful that seven out of the ten councils in Greater Manchester will back the scheme.

Bury, Stockport and Trafford councils are all opposed to the charge

as they don't think that the benefits of the proposed public transport improvements for them outweigh the embuggerance of the congestion charging scheme.

Bolton has said it would hold its own referendum on the issue.

and that's likely to be against the congestion charge as Bolton won't be getting much in the way of public transport improvements either.

So, as getting a majority of councils to vote in favour of the scheme looks doubtful, the plan is to bypass this by organising a referendum and trying to get a majority there instead.

I love how the phrase "in return for billions of pounds worth of transport improvements" is being bandied around.

Improvements?? It's INVESTMENT and as we all know the value of an investment can go down as well as up. Who honestly trusts this shower with their track record of pouring billions and billions into various projects with negligible results?

Why should it be any different now?

We've already seen how the London CC has slowly morphed from a congestion charge into an emissions tax/green tax and no doubt before too long the same will happen here.

Next stop, quadruple the charge for all big cars going into town and after that, on any old engine. The environment you see!

Dare to protest and courtesy of the info collected by the electronic chip in your car and your reg plate being snapped by a zillion CCTV cameras you'll be getting a court summons through your letter box faster than you thought Royal Mail were ever capable of.

Mark my words it will happen. Once the infrastructure is in place and the moolah starts rolling in, it'll be too tempting a cash cow for the bastards. Just ask anyone in London.

I run my own company near Manc city centre and although the charge won't really affect me personally, being a rich cnut, around half my employees are going to get severely stung.

All that'll happen is that a lot of money will be spent and we'll still have a shite transport system afterwards. Bastards might as well tax you for getting up in the morning.

Vote NO.

Whilst public transport is is the hands of private companies and with profit as there goal they will never put being a Reliable Cheap alternative to the car in place. Thus congestion charging does not reduce conjestion it just milks thouse who have to use cars to get to places work etc

'Liabour making the difference to the working person'...not to mention the fat profits anticipated by some second rate service provider who will no doubt set up the system and then administer on the cheap.

feck im in a really ranty mood today...

Originally Posted by halo_jones

Whilst public transport is is the hands of private companies and with profit as there goal they will never put being a Reliable Cheap alternative to the car in place.

I would disagree as someone who hasn't owned a car for 8 years and uses the bus services quite regularly. The bus co (Stagecoach) do offer a good service and are subsidized by the council (and no, I don't work for them either...)

Originally Posted by mac1

Originally Posted by halo_jones

Whilst public transport is is the hands of private companies and with profit as there goal they will never put being a Reliable Cheap alternative to the car in place.

I would disagree as someone who hasn't owned a car for 8 years and uses the bus services quite regularly. The bus co (Stagecoach) do offer a good service and are subsidized by the council (and no, I don't work for them either...)

Public transport is hit and miss in Manchester, you cant get a bus from one side of GM to the other without changing companies thus doubling your fare, Fatty Prescott was forever banging on about integrated transport networks, which we all know is bollox. The route in to the city past the university (I forget the route number) A grand total of 11 companies run buzzes on that route, not one on them will accept anyone else’s tickets, with some of the buses having finished a career in Nigeria then been shipped onto service in the UK. So much for De-regulating the buses.

The 42 route? Yes it's a nightmare for traffic and yes there are huge numbers of companies running it, but you're never short of a lift home at peak time. You can even afford to wait a bit, ignore the horrendously expensive services (Stagecoach) and wait for the cheap ones, they're that common.