Congestion charging bid under threat

Congestion charging road marking

The Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) bid for £3 billion from the government's new Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) is under threat as a neighbour launches a rebellion - because of its own traffic jams.

As government officials pour over the details of Greater Manchester’s TIF bid to bring £3bn of public transport improvements in return for congestion charging, Bury is likely to join Stockport and Trafford and withdraw its support for the plan on Wednesday.

That would leave only seven of Greater Manchester’s district authorities in favour of the bid - which would collapse if just one more council was to change its mind.

Bury’s Labour group, which lost control of the council in May, has already broken ranks with Labour colleagues and demanded a referendum on the matter. And with more than three authorities against, only a yes vote in a county-wide referendum would rescue the plan.

When they decided to make the bid for Transport Innovation Fund money in July, council leaders from all over Greater Manchester agreed to recognise “the need to examine investment options for reducing congestion between Ramsbottom and Bury possibly utilising the heritage East Lancashire Railway and the potential for the extension of this railway via Heywood and Castleton”.

But Tory council leader Councillor Bob Bibby has now said: “What has happened since is very, very little.”

As a result, the Conservatives, Bury’s biggest political party since the May elections, have tabled a motion for its council meeting on Wednesday which says: “This council is against the TIF bid if congestion charges are included in the final offer from the government.”

The government has, in fact, already said that it will not even consider any TIF bids without congestion charging and Greater Manchester was the only one of ten contenders to include it in its application. A decision is now thought to be due next March.

Although Bury was the first town outside Manchester to get Metrolink 15 years ago, congestion to the north of the town on roads to Ramsbottom and beyond has become critical.

Officials there have long hoped for a Metrolink extension to the town’s Bolton Street station from where the private East Lancs Railway would link to the rail line from Rochdale to Manchester at Castleton.

Councillor Bibby said: “We believe we have got the worst congestion in Greater Manchester and we need to do something about it.

“I would not want to see Greater Manchester lose the public transport improvements but the fact is that people are taxed up to the hilt and a lot of them are just saying no to congestion charging.”