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BREAKING NEWS: - NO to Congestion charge plan

12:25pm Friday 12th December 2008 in Cars By Dale Haslam

THE people have spoken - and it's a big NO to the congestion charge.

Residents voted four to one against the Transport Innovation Fund scheme, which aimed to transform public transport in Greater Manchester.

In Bury, the vote was 16,563 in favour, and 64,001 against, on a turnout of 57.4 per cent of borough residents.

For the plan to get put through, seven out of the 10 Greater Manchester districts would have had to vote 'yes'.

But all ten Greater Manchester districts voted 'no', with a million votes cast in the largest referendum of its kind.

Results were announced shortly after noon today, Friday December 12, by returning officer Sir Neil McIntosh, after a mammoth counting session at Manchester Central, formerly G-Mex.

The TIF scheme was to bring £2.8 billion for public transport improvements, but £1.2 billion was to be borrowed and paid back through a weekday, peak-time congestion charge in two zones around the city.

The people's vote is not binding, however.

Council leaders of the ten councils have to confirm that they support the vote, though it would be highly unusual for them not to.

Bury Council leader Bob Bibby has consistently said he would support the outcome of the referendum.

Representatives from all 10 councils will now meet next Friday, December 19, to vote on the TIF bid, and unless seven of them vote 'yes', the plan will be formally killed off.

Coun Bibby said: ""The government has been trying to push us into adopting an unfair charge and it surely now cannot leave Greater Manchester to the cold winds of the recession.

"I call upon the government to meet its obligation to their city region and ensure that the £1.5 billion grant from the Department of Transport is allocated to the Manchester authorities to spend on improving the public transport infrastructure in Greater Manchester at this critical time."

Comments(14)

redvales rebel says...
12:54pm Fri 12 Dec 08

Great news, True democracy for once.

The people who voted NO have just saved everyone in Greater Manchester from an ever increasing indirect tax.

Vehicle road fund tax was introduced to supposedly maintain the roads, With the ever increasing cost each year we should have the smoothest roads in Europe. What happened to that great scheme.

If the ideal behind the C charge was to reduce vehicles on the road, Who ends up paying the government loan back, Every council tax payer.

Where was the money coming from in the place, Tax already paid, They're lending out our own money and charging us for it.

I don't think this will be the end of it though, What a waste of money all the consultants, leaflet printing, road surveys etc, etc will have been if they let it drop.

You only have to look at Ireland to see how they won't let a majority vote stand.

64,001 Thanks go to all the NO voters .

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A Darener says...
12:58pm Fri 12 Dec 08

Only one thing to say......

YIPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEE
!

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The Man on Bury Bridge says...
1:02pm Fri 12 Dec 08

Common sense from the people in Gtr Manchester. It would be nice to see a re-phasing of traffic lights throughout the county now to make the traffic flow properly.

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Room4More says...
1:47pm Fri 12 Dec 08

Well done to MART / Sean and all involved. Common Sense came through, now Richard Leese needs to leave.

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carlchrystan says...
2:06pm Fri 12 Dec 08

Knew it would happen. Well-meaning aims with silly methods of execution. That's why it got rejected. The TIF plan was a little bit like foiling a bank robbery by dive-bombing the bank and killing everyone inside. It's right to improve things, but not by making ordinary people bear the brunt!

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bucketlung says...
3:40pm Fri 12 Dec 08

Fantastic News ! However.....I find it troubling that the peoples vote is not binding. Given that we live in a democracy it would not look good if this referendum was ignored. I expect lots of excuses from the TIF people - recession, not clear enough communication, cold weather etc. but the people have spoken. Hopefully nobody will be dumb enough to try and overturn this.

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Angelina Buxombotté says...
6:15pm Fri 12 Dec 08

Now that the ten Greater Manchester Councils have admitted that the bus service is not up to scratch perhaps they might consider doing away with the bus lanes which have been one of the major contributors to the road congestion experienced by so many Road Tax payers. And whilst they are doing that, perhaps they may consider giving us Road Tax payers back the roads painted out by all the whitewash used to restrict nearly all the traffic on major roads to one single lane.
There appears to have been a major misjudgement of the wishes of both the Rate Payers and the road users of Greater Manchester and surely such a misjudgement followed by a costly campaign of misinformation on such a grand scale brings into question their ability to carry out their duties in Public Office.
This excercise in hypocracy is one of the most shameful I have ever experienced from those entrusted with the public good.
How soon will we see resignations from those concerned?

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Balloon says...
10:30pm Fri 12 Dec 08

Considering David Chaytor supported this ridiculous scheme just goes to show how out of touch he is with his constituents. He has absolutley no idea what we want in Bury North. This also sends a clear message to Labour and anyone else who thinks they can take us for a ride. We will not accept it anymore. Goodbye Mr Chaytor. at the next election you will go from backbench to no bench. And not before time too. Well Done to all those who voted no. A victory for common sense

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carlchrystan says...
7:30pm Sat 13 Dec 08

Yeah....I really want this Labour goverment gone...let's get the Tories in. They certainly always act on the will of the people and have all of our interests at heart, don't they? And what's more, they always listen to you and give you the chance to voice opposition. Just look at their brillant handling of the Bury council pay regrading and their funky new rules regarding asking questions at council meetings!

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Black Bottle says...
7:52pm Sat 13 Dec 08

I for one think that we will rue the day this was not a 'Yes'vote. Referenda seeking a tax rise are not very wise because we are fundamentally selfish as we see from the resluts. Frighteningly the 'No' camp offer no real alternative to congestion in our cities.
We are all going to pay now whether we travel into M/cr or not ..so Thankyou the 'No' voters!

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Room4More says...
9:31pm Sat 13 Dec 08

Black Bottle, but the no camp offerred numerous alternatives as we are incredibly inventive and astute. However when the yes faction have their fingers in their ears 24/7 it is not surprising that you did not hear about any of them.

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Angelina Buxombotté says...
12:20am Mon 15 Dec 08

Black Bottle, Bury says...
7:52pm Sat 13 Dec 08
"I for one think that we will rue the day this was not a 'Yes'vote. Referenda seeking a tax rise are not very wise because we are fundamentally selfish as we see from the resluts. Frighteningly the 'No' camp offer no real alternative to congestion in our cities.
We are all going to pay now whether we travel into M/cr or not ..so Thankyou the 'No' voters!"

Black Bottle, please refrain from tarring everyone else with your own selfishness brush. You are now attempting to devalue the democratic process which decided that a Toll Tax was not the answer and would not provide a remedy for a problem caused by narrowing the roads into and out of Manchester in the rush hour.

The alternative to a Toll Tax is to close the bus and cycle lanes and for motorist to reclaim their roads.

The buses run if and when they decide to and the cyclists are the rudest road users of all and seldom follow the highway code.

Although some of them have handsome bottoms.

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redvales rebel says...
2:57pm Mon 15 Dec 08

Angelina says, "Although some of them have handsome bottoms".

Keep your eyes on the road.

All hell will break loose if you as a car driver dare to harm one of these irresponsible cyclists.

However I would like to know where you've seen a cyclist recently?

Never see them in the cycle lanes, that's for sure.

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Daibach says...
4:20pm Tue 16 Dec 08

A victory for the ordinary working woman and man!

The sole aim of this whole fiasco was always to get the 'workers' off the roads and onto public transport so that there would be more room for the 'well off' who wouldn't have been bothered about a paltry £1200 a year!

Lets face it, Public transport is in this area is useless.I know because I try to use it every day but often end up walking the three+ miles to work because the 'frequent' bus service doesn't turn up!) It's also very expensive.

On the days that I do have to drive into Manchester the only real hold up is getting through Bury where the whole traffic management system is a disaster AND the entire population appear to have nothing better to do than transport their children to any school apart from the nearest one to their homes!

The TIF proposals would not have changed this at all.

The real answer is to make public transport so cheap and efficient that it would be madness to travel by car. For proof of this just stand at any bus stop at 09.30 and see the queue of over 60s with their free passes!!!


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