Greens Dismayed By ‘No’ Vote On Congestion Charge
The Green Party has expressed their disappointment with the outcome of Manchester Congestion Charging Vote. A majority of voters in all of the region’s 10 boroughs voted against the plans, with 812,815 (79 per cent) no votes and 218,860 (21 per cent) in favour of the charge.
Alan Francis, Transport Spokesman for the Green Party said: “We are very disappointed with the results. It was an opportunity to bring Manchester’s transport system into the 21st century, as well going some way to reducing the city’s carbon emissions. Despite local government support for the proposals, there appears to be no plan B in case the bid failed. With increased car use and Greater Manchester streets at a gridlock, the government and local authorities now don’t have any plans to tackle congestion or increasing carbon emissions. They urgently need to devise a strategy for reducing car use and getting more people travelling by train, tram, bus, bike and walking. That will require huge investment in improving those alternatives to car use. Meanwhile Manchester residents will have to put up with traffic congestion and inadequate public transport and the climate change will continue to get worse.”
Nearly 2m people were asked if they supported a £2.8bn investment in regional transport, which included the peak-time charge. The proposal aimed to create the biggest road congestion zone in the UK, charging drivers up to £5 a day to use Greater Manchester’s roads.
Simon McBride
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1 Comment
It is time you accepted the fact people need to drive to earn a living and go about their everyday lives.
Your party should respect this result and help work towards minimising congestion through driver friendly policies instead of this blind obsession with getting people out of cars and onto a bus.
So much damage has been done to our towns and cities with this policy. Congestion causing obstructions in the roads, traffic lights when completely unnecessary and this daft reduction of speed limits across areas where it is not appropriate.
Work with drivers to free up our streets, remove traffic lights, traffic calming and all the other backward transport policies of the past 10 years and we might start to see congestion ease and emissions reduce.
The car is not going away; it is getting cleaner all the time and provides the most efficient means of transport available.
Please stop this obsessive car hatred and learn to respect the single most important and efficient form of transport ever conceived.
Talking sense
December 15, 2008, 9:50 am.
