Greater Manchester congestion charge

A map of Greater Manchester highlighting the two cordons in red. The M60 Manchester orbital motorway was proposed as the "greater" cordon, and the Manchester Inner Ring Road would have had additional "inner" cordon.

The Greater Manchester congestion charge^[1] was part of a bid to the Government's Transport Innovation Fund for a £3-billion package of transport funding and the introduction of a road congestion charge for Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England.^[2][3] In 2008, two cordons were proposed—the outer encircling the main urban core of the Greater Manchester Urban Area and the inner covered Manchester city centre.^[4] The Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund was rejected by a referendum on 12 December 2008.^[5]

The proposed charge was to help pay for improvements in public transport, with £3 billion in the form of a grant and loan,^[6][7] in particular for the Manchester Metrolink expansion,^[8] and to reduce congestion in Greater Manchester.

Background and proposal

Main article: Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund (TiF)

Proposed charge

The proposal was part of a bid to the Government's Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) for a £2.7 billion package of transport funding and the introduction of a road congestion charging system. A key aspect of the proposed Manchester Congestion Charge was the setting up of the system, which will be paid for (£318 million) with part of the £2.7bn fund from the TIF. £1.151bn of this would have been in the form of a loan which the revenue from the charging scheme will be used to pay back over a 30-year period.

It was proposed that vehicles entering the area bounded by the M60 motorway would have been charged £2.00 in the morning peak, with a further £1.00 for those entering the inner cordon, roughly corresponding to the Manchester Inner Ring Road. In the evening, a further £1.00 would have be charged on exit of each cordon. The figures quoted by AGMA and GMPTE are at 2007 prices. By 2013 AGMA estimated that the cost of crossing both cordons at charging times would be £6 [1]

The area covered by the charge would have covered about 80 square miles (210 km²). [2]

The original zone covered by the London Congestion Charge was about eight square miles, Singapore two square miles and Stockholm 18 square miles,[3] but the scheme differed from London in that charges would have been lower and the charging hours much shorter. Inbound charges would have applied between 7:00 am and 9:30 am, outbound ones between 4:00 pm and 6:30 pm. There would have been no charge during the middle of the day, later in the evening or at the weekend, nor for journeys against the peak flow—i.e. to leave the city in the morning or to enter it in the evening.

Payment of the charge would be via a pre-pay "tag and beacon" system. Credit would automatically be deducted from a driver's account as they passed each of the cordons. Occasional visitors to Manchester without a pre-pay tag would be able to pay via call centre or internet, although there would be a surcharge for this. The scheme was planned to be up and running by the summer of 2013, after the 80% of the public transport improvements were complete.

Motorcycles, black taxis and private hire cars would not have to pay the charge. It was proposed that the Manchester scheme would charge motorcycles at a lower rate than cars, as they do not contribute to congestion to the same extent as cars but this was later dropped.^[9]

Proposed public transport improvements

A number of specific projects would be funded from the scheme, including extensions of the Manchester Metrolink to Oldham town centre, Rochdale town centre, East Didsbury, Ashton-under-Lyne, the Trafford Centre and Manchester Airport. A second line through the city centre would also be built. In total, 35 kilometres (22 mi) of new lines were planned. A Bus Rapid Transit system was proposed along the Oxford Road corridor and between the city centre and Bolton and Leigh. A fleet of American-style yellow school buses were mooted. More than 30 rail stations would be upgraded, in addition to extra carriages for the busiest rail services. GMPTE also planned to introduce a smartcard ticketing system, similar to London's Oyster Card. Eight new transport interchanges were to be built across Greater Manchester.^[10] The government claimed that most, if not all, of these improvements were to be in place before the congestion charge was imposed.

Government financial support

In a speech to the House of Commons on Monday 9 June 2008, Minister for Transport Ruth Kelly gave Manchester's TIF bid the government's approval. She announced that the DfT would be giving Manchester £1.441 billion, £300 million more than AGMA had requested.^[11]

Reaction

Public

A group of over 160 businesses called United City that are based in Manchester have given their full support for the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) bid.^[12]

A group of over 279 businesses called the Greater Manchester Momentum Group opposed the plans as currently drawn. [4]

On 24 October the Stop the Charge Coalition was formed, comprising a cross party alliance of seven local MPs and the leaders of the three councils opposed to the plans.

The Manchester Evening News newspaper conducted a telephone survey to gauge public support for a congestion charging scheme.^[13] The survey posed several questions, two of which directly asked if respondents were in favour of congestion charging. The results were mixed, with around two thirds of respondents thinking that congestion charging was not "a good idea" but a slim majority in favour of congestion charging in Manchester as part of the proposed public transport improvement scheme in Manchester's Transport Innovation Fund bid.

• "Do you think congestion charging is a good idea": Yes – 36%; No – 64% out of 100 votes
• "Is congestion charging a price worth paying to get £3bn Government cash to improve public transport in the region – including the expansion of the Metrolink to Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham and Rochdale, as well as South Manchester and Manchester Airport?": Yes – 55%; No – 44%

A "Green Survey" conducted by the same news paper month later shows that two thirds of the region back the congestion charge. One side is headed by a coalition of campaign groups known as Clean Air Now (CAN),^[14] while the other side is headed by campaign group known as Manchester Against Road Tolls (MART).
MART stated that it did not believe the public was consulted properly and that the information provided by supporters of the charge was biased and insufficient.^[15] MART started a legal petition calling for a referendum on a directly elected mayor who would lead Bury council and be able to withdraw Bury's support from the scheme. This required 7,099 people or 5% of the Bury electorate to sign the petition.^[16] Some councillors for Bury have called for a referendum directly on the congestion charge.^[17] MART has launched similar petitions in the other seven districts of Greater Manchester that support the TiF bid.^[18] MART has established a branch in Tameside after gauging the level of opposition to the scheme in the area through the online petition.^[19] In July 2008, the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities agreed unanimously to the proposed Transport Improvements, in conjunction with a Congestion Charge, to be submitted to a referendum of the residents of Greater Manchester; the vote itself to be managed by the Electoral Reform Society. Only if there is a majority in favour of the proposals in seven out of the ten boroughs, would the proposals go forwards.

Political

The proposals were voted on at a meeting of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities on 27 July 2007 in Dukinfield, Tameside.^[20]

AGMA took only 45 minutes to vote to proceed with the TIF proposals by eight votes to two, with Stockport and Trafford borough councils the only opponents. Before the meeting, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council had held their own consultations to gauge public support. After the Stockport survey found that 67% of residents and 78% of businesses in the borough did not support the proposed road charges it announced on 26 July 2007 that it would be voting no at the meeting of AGMA the following day.^[21] Trafford announced on 23 July 2007 that it would vote against the congestion charging proposals.^[22] On the 12 December 2007, Bury Metropolitan Borough Council voted to withdraw its support for the congestion charge, bringing the numbers to seven for, three against.^[23] In January 2008 seven of the local authorities in Greater Manchester support the scheme.^[24] Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council is planning to hold a vote on whether to continue their support for the plans.^[24]

Labour is strongly in favour of the congestion charge having proposed the idea through the Labour controlled GMPTE. It has faced a mixed reaction from the Liberal Democrats with Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (which is controlled by the Liberal Democrats) rejecting the Manchester Congestion Charge, yet many Manchester City Liberal Democrats have spoken out as being in favour of the congestion charge and Liberal Democrat controlled Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council voted in favour. The only party to reject the congestion charge is the Conservatives who control Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council.^[25]

In the United Kingdom local elections, 2008 Roger Jones, the Labour chairman of the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive, was pushed into third place in Irlam, Salford. His seat was won by the Community Action Party, which ran a campaign based on opposition to the £5 daily peak period congestion charge that was proposed by Jones.

Regional Ballot Results

In a public referendum the results were split down through each of the 10 local councils involved. The referendum needed to gain the support of 8 council areas to be passed. In the end, each of the local areas rejected the proposals by large majorities.

Votes in response to the Manchester Congestion Charge Referendum

Region	Turnout (%)	Yes	No	Yes (%)	No (%)
Bolton	48.8	20,529	79,910	21	79
Bury	57.4	16,563	64,001	21	79
Rochdale	50.8	17,333	68,884	20	80
Oldham	54.4	17,571	68,884	20	80
Wigan	45.3	27,810	78,565	26	74
Salford	57.0	14,603	79,326	16	84
Manchester	46.1	43,593	113,064	28	72
Tameside	60.7	16,323	83,105	17	83
Trafford	63.6	20,445	83,568	20	80
Stockport	59.0	24,090	103,706	19	81
TOTAL	53.2	218,860	812,815	21.2	78.8
Source: Manchester Evening News C-Charge Results

As a result of this public response, the Congestion Charge proposal for Manchester was dropped.

See also

• Congestion pricing
• Road pricing

References

1. ^ "Manchester Congestion Charge". Pro-Motor Ltd. http://www.abd.org.uk/manchester_congestion_charge.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-03. 
2. ^ Salter, Alan (2007-05-05). "C-charge details revealed". Manchester Evening News (M.E.N. Media Ltd). http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1007/1007736_ccharge_details_revealed.html. Retrieved 2007-11-25. 
3. ^ "Manchester makes move towards congestion charge". The Guardian (Guardian News and Media Limited). 2007-07-27. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/jul/27/communities.environment. Retrieved 2007-11-25. 
4. ^ "Traffic Congestion charging: FAQs". BBC Manchester. http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2007/01/24/240106_road_pricing_feature.shtml. Retrieved 2007-11-26. 
5. ^ "C-Charge - it's NO". Manchester Evening News (M.E.N. Media Ltd). 2008-12-12. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/c/1085031_ccharge_its_no. Retrieved 2008-12-12. ^{[dead link]}
6. ^ Salter, Alan (2007-05-26). "Charge is key to £3bn transport revolution". Manchester Evening News (M.E.N. Media Ltd). http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1007/1007782_charge_is_key_to_3bn_transport_revolution.html. Retrieved 2007-11-25. 
7. ^ Our Future Transport
8. ^ Towle, Nick (2006-07-06). "'Congestion charge to pay for Metrolink'". South Manchester Reporter (M.E.N. Media). http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk/news/s/514922_congestion_charge_to_pay_for_metrolink. Retrieved 2007-11-25. 
9. ^ "Consultation Brochure". Greater Manchester Future Transport (GM Future Transport Consultation). 2008-06-17. http://www.gmfuturetransport.co.uk/pdf/Consultation_Brochure.pdf. 
10. ^ "Greater Manchester TIF Package Unlocks up to £3bn of Public Transport Investment". http://www.gmpte.com/news.cfm?news_id=6042551. 
11. ^ David Ottewell (2008-06-09). "Kelly paves way for c-charge". Manchester Evening News. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1053238_kelly_paves_way_for_ccharge. Retrieved 2008-06-27. 
12. ^ "United City Home Page". United City. 2008-06-17. http://www.unitedcity.co.uk/index.php. 
13. ^ "Congestion charge survey - Manchester". Manchester Evening News. M.E.N. Media. 2007-03-20. http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1002/1002412_congestion_charge_survey__manchester.html. Retrieved 2007-11-25. 
14. ^ Clean Air Now!
15. ^ http://www.notolls.org.uk/ourfutureleaflet.pdf
16. ^ Doherty, Peter (2007-08-23). "US-style mayor bid to halt congestion charge". Bury Times (Newsquest Media Group). http://www.burytimes.co.uk/news/burynews/display.var.1639294.0.usstyle_mayor_bid_to_halt_congestion_charge.php. Retrieved 2007-11-25. 
17. ^ Doherty, Peter (2007-09-13). "Labour call for referendum over C-charge plans". Archant Media Group. http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.1684058.0.labour_call_for_referendum_over_ccharge_plans.php. Retrieved 2007-11-25. 
18. ^ http://www.notolls.org.uk/images/tamesidereporter9nov07.jpg
19. ^ http://www.notolls.org.uk/images/tamesideadvertiser3oct07.jpg
20. ^ Salter, Alan (2007-07-27). "C-charge gets go-ahead". Manchester Evening News (M.E.N. Media). http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1012/1012223_ccharge_gets_goahead.html. Retrieved 2007-07-27. 
21. ^ "Authority says 'no' to road tolls". BBC News. 2007-07-26. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6917094.stm. Retrieved 2007-11-25. 
22. ^ "Council opposes congestion charge". BBC News. 2007-07-24. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6913707.stm. Retrieved 2007-11-25. 
23. ^ Britton, Paul (2007-12-13). "Bury blow for c-charge". Manchester Evening News (M.E.N. Media). http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1028190_bury_blow_for_ccharge. Retrieved 2008-01-12. 
24. ^ ^{a b} "Council to vote on road pricing". BBC News (British Broadcasting Corporation). 2008-01-09. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7178458.stm. Retrieved 2008-01-12. 
25. ^ "Congestion Charge 'a con' says Adlard" (Press release). Manchester Conservatives. http://www.manchesterconservatives.com/index.php?sectionid=3&pagenumber=138. Retrieved 2007-11-25. 

External links

• The congestion charge in context with the wider improvements proposed as part of the TIF bid.
• Clean Air Now (CAN) - coalition of independent campaign groups in favour of the proposed congestion charge.
• Manchester Against Road Tolls - Leading the fight against the proposed congestion charge.
• Greater Manchester Momentum Group - Business alliance who is against the current TIF proposal.
• National Alliance Against Tolls - Manchester Information etc., from those campaigning against the plans.
• United City - A group of major businesses supporting the TIF bid.