Consigned to history

Move spells end for congestion charging
THE Government has signalled the death knell of congestion charging by telling Greater Manchester — where the idea was crushed by people power two years ago — that it needs the agreement of all 10 of its districts before any new plans can be introduced.

And a local politician, who has just regained the council seat he lost two years ago because of his support for road pricing, believes it will be at least a decade before anyone even dare suggest the idea again.

Oldham and the other nine councils in Greater Manchester have been given permission by the Government to create a combined authority to take important decisions together — with decisions requiring a two-thirds majority.

But a letter from Communities Minister Bob Neil and Transport Minister Norman Baker says there must be “specific voting arrangements which would apply in regard to proposals for road user charging schemes”.

They say any scheme must be passed by a unanimous 10-0 majority and add: “This is because the relatively recent referendum in Manchester on road user charging and the overwhelming response to it has led us to believe that any introduction of a charging scheme should be on the clear basis that any charging scheme is endorsed by all the constituent councils.”

It was in December, 2008, that Oldhamers voted by a massive 68,884 to 17,571 to throw out the idea.

Across Greater Manchester, people voted overwhelmingly against the congestion charge — and the billions of pounds of transport investment it would have unlocked.

All 10 districts voted against. Overall, 78.8 per cent of people rejected the idea compared with 22.2 per cent who supported it.

Salford councillor Roger Jones was chairman of the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority at the time and lost the seat he had held for 25 years in the local elections the following May.

Now re-elected, he said: “I have always thought that once the referendum result came out, the issue is dead for the next 10 years at least.

“But there would be no reason to consider it any more. The whole point of the last time was that the Labour Government was offering millions of pounds to improve public transport if we had accepted it. Now, that is off the table and without the big money, I wouldn’t even consider it.”