Congestion Charge, how will you vote, what do you think?

[wolfman]

A spin off if the C charge went through would have been that disabled badge owners would have been affected because the badge at present is issued to a person and not a vehicle. As long as the person to whom the badge is issued is in any vehicle they can use the badge. Under the proposals for the C charge this would transfer to a vehicle.

[wolfman]

THE failed TIF bid is believed to have cost more than £20m.

Council staff spent thousands of hours drawing up detailed plans for how the congestion charge would work.

A report produced by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities last month revealed £6m was spent on working out how the scheme would operate - including the impact on jobs and motoring.

A total of £3m was spent on a public consultation about the plans, including a Mori poll of 85,000 people and the delivery of leaflets to 2m households. Cash was also spent on TV, radio and newspaper adverts explaining the TIF plans.

Another £5.4m was spent on investigating rail, bus and park and ride schemes. And more than 30 private consultancies were paid a total of £6.5m to help research and draw up the plans.

Among them was design agency Creative Concern - which was behind a leaflet that used invented `case studies' illustrated with pictures of American models. The cost of the postal ballot of 1.9m homes is expected to be £2m.

A total of £34m had originally been budgeted. At the end of October, £18m had been spent but the total costs have still to be assessed.

More than half the costs were met through a grant from the Department for Transport, while the remaining funds were provided by the councils.
from the MEN website author not stated.

[eeyore21]

the bus lanes only get used by buses to help congestion between the hrs of 7am till 10am and then 4pm till 7pm any other times anybody can use the bus lane. so if you get stuck in traffic use it.

[wolfman]

 
VOTES BY AREA
Bolton
Yes 20,529
No 76,910
Turnout - 48.8%
Bury
Yes 16,563
No 64,001
Turnout 57.4%
Manchester
Yes 43,593
No 113,064
Turnout 46.1%
Oldham
Yes 17,571
No 68,884
Turnout 54.4%
Rochdale
Yes 17,333
No 61,686
Turnout 50.8%
Salford
Yes 14,603
No 79,326
Turnout 57%
Stockport
Yes 24,090
No 103,706
Turnout 59%
Tameside
Yes 16,323
No 83,105
Turnout 60.7%
Trafford
Yes 20,445
No 83,568
Turnout 63.6%
Wigan
Yes 27,810
No 78,565
Turnout 45.3%

[Dave]

Perhaps when they come back again.........

I don't think they will come back again - not for a few years anyway.  The vote was being watched throughout the UK - just as the regional assembly referendum in the North East a couple of years ago was watched - as an indicator of whether the principle of congestion charging would be accepted outside London.  This vote has probably kicked the whole idea into the long grass for the foreseeable future. 

[moorendman]

So the stockport vote was accurately reflected in our very limited poll here of around 4 to 1 against.

I don't know what I will do now there will be no new Stockport Bus station. Perhaps when they come back again they might consider putting public transport improvements in first, re-regulating the buses, reducing the congestion charging zone to a more sensible smaller area around Manchester City Centre and finally realising that "holding a gun" to our heads will not work.

[the rover]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a sensible decision. Now lets see what they come up with next to reduce congestion, hopefully it will be something like get rid of the bus lanes which are mostly empty.

[Neil Smith]

Its a massive NO Every single of the 10 boroughs said NO

[Howard]

Got pointed to the referendum figures from Michael Taylor's blog, "The Marple Leaf" (which is found at http://themarpleleaf.blogspot.com/)



Michael's opinion is here:
http://themarpleleaf.blogspot.com/2008/12/tif-referendum-winner-is.html

The turnout appears to be less than 50% in every borough. In Stockport the votes received add up to 89,432 so far, from an electorate of 216,973. A turnout so far of 41.2% is above the regional average of 38.2%.The full piece is here:
http://blogs.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/politics/2008/12/post_475.html

[Dave]

why should we as car drivers pay for a private company (gmpte and the trains) make more money,

GMPTE is not a private company, it is a public body - the executive arm of the Passenger Transport Authority GMPTA, which is responsible to the ten Greater Manchester district councils. 

Local rail services are provided by a private company, Northern Rail, which receives a subsidy from GMPTE.  However, nationally, road transport receives around 40 times more taxpayers  money than rail transport, so Joe Bloggs in his car is doing very nicely thank you!   

[Neil Smith]

Dave I think a little like you, but 99% of me says why should we as car drivers pay for a private company (gmpte and the trains) make more money, they get enough out of our council tax as it is, the government should tell them[gmpte etc] to expand and sort the state of the busses out etc, and if they want this £3bn in funds that they have to pay it back as they are the ones that will benefit not Joe bloggs car driver.

[Dave]

Well after sitting on the fence for weeks I've come off it at last, and have voted yes.

It's not straightforward, is it.  I fear the charge will make congestion worse not better in our immediate area - i.e. around south and east Stockport, just outside the M60.   But then the congestion will get worse anyway - so we might as well have the benefits of improvements to our public transport, such as they are.   

But I remain mystified by the promise to paint school buses yellow.  How can the colour have any effect on traffic congestion.   

[Neil Smith]

Meanwhile, for those of us who are still undecided, it's 'make your mind up' time - deadline for voting is next Thursday 11 December.   

I would say deadline for posting you vote is 10 Dec as your vote needs to be down in London for the close on the 11th for the final count.

[Dave]

Still they have got 8 spaces left to park on the short stay.

Quite right too!  There is precious little parking in Marple Bridge, and those short stay places in Brabyns Brow Car Park are often needed by people who want to shop or go to the doctors/dentists in Marple Bridge.  However, the disabled spaces are always empty!    What's badly needed is an extension to the car park behind Basmati, opposite the station.

Meanwhile, for those of us who are still undecided, it's 'make your mind up' time - deadline for voting is next Thursday 11 December.   

[moorendman]

A quick enquiry on the net shows that a retuen fare at peak times is £4.90 Marple to manchester , £7.60 New mills to Manchester. At £2.70 a day I would drive to Marple too, especially if the idiots paying for car park maintenance on the council tax were providing me with a free space to park !! Still they have got 8 spaces left to park on the short stay.