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PLANS for a Greater Manchester-wide referendum on congestion charging have been given a cautious welcome by Tameside Council leader Roy Oldham.
Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester council, stunned political colleagues by declaring he would support a vote – provided all 10 local authorities in the area accepted the overall result.
The move was a dramatic U-turn by the most prominent supporter of plans to introduce the peak-hour-only charge in return for £3bn of public transport improvements.
Sir Richard has always previously claimed the issue was ‘too complicated’ for a simple yes-or-no referendum.
Now he has raised the possibility of a referendum costing more than £1m and would be carried out by post in October after 14 weeks of public consultation.
Councillor Oldham said: "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get billions of pounds of investment in cracking the major transport problems we have across Greater Manchester. Like the other nine council areas, Tameside will significantly benefit from this investment. I concur with Richard Leese’s comments and would say yes to a referendum across Greater Manchester after the consultation process, but like him, I would only agree to this if the other 10 districts agree and are bound by it."
Rob Hardman, from anti-congestion charging group Manchester Against Road Tolls, said he was surprised by the move.
"I think it’s a good idea and it’s what MART has been campaigning for but we want to make sure it’s done in a fair way and people get the full information on the TIF bid so they can make a proper decision," he said. "At the moment they’re highlighting the good points without mentioning the bad points and we think the bad outweighs the good. Money for public transport should be found in other ways."
Tory deputy leader Councillor Derek Baines said: "A decision whether or not to introduce a congestion charge is one that would affect generations of residents to come.
"It is therefore only right and proper that the voters of Tameside should decide the outcome, rather than the 10 leaders of the Greater Manchester Authorities."
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MART had been asking for a referendum for some time with no luck. The arrogance of Labour wouldn't want a local pressure group show that they were right that a congestion charge in Manchester would get a sound no.
So MART find a loophole. They call for a referendum on an elected mayor. Unfortunately John Bell did not support this idea - nor has he been strong on the anti congestion charge issue. So by now with the support of the Conservatives, we could have an elected mayor. The Tories were only 2% behind Labour in Tameside in the 2008 elections. That extra 2% is easily obtainable with some work. The referendum for an elected mayor would have been spun on one issue and Labour knew they would lose it and as a result we would have a Conservative mayor and Tameside would join other Tory councils to say no and that would be enough to quash the con charge across Manchester. Oh and the best bit would be that Roy Oldham would be no longer be our glorious leader.
Oh and the Advertiser should check its archives. A few years ago, Roy Oldham supported the idea for an elected mayor with the now defunct Karen Wright. Why the change of heart Roy?
10/07/2008 at 16:54