The Congestion Charge
I am getting increasingly sick of the blackmail and propaganda that's being used to try and force this charge on us. The latest comments from Geoff Hoon that "...there is no Plan B" are disgusting. In summary, Manchester *has* to force this £5 daily charge on everyone or it loses the right to *borrow* money from the Government to bring the public transport up to something resembling an acceptable level after years of underinvestment (despite continual huge hikes in fares). Aside from that, the whole scheme as proposed is fundamentally flawed:
- "9 out of 10 people won't be affected," say the Yes campaign. However, the vast majority of those that *will* be affected are the working people that are the lifeblood of the economy! If it's going to cost businesses thousands extra a week just to run, they'll look elsewhere and Manchester will lose out
- Charging only applies at peak times. That's right, those times at the start and end of the 9-5 business day when the majority of the workforce *have* to travel, barring an unlikely nationwide rescheduling of office hours
- The ridiculously wide outer ring of the charging area, which means that you can face a charge for going nowhere near the city centre
- And the most glaring hole in the proposals - the planned scheme for implementation. How the hell do organisers expect a tracking-chip system to work? Are they going to go and install trackers in every car in the world for them to be charged? How many receiver stations will have to be set up and maintained to track all these vehicles? And how much of the billions of "investment" pledged to the scheme would go on setup rather than new rolling stock?
- "9 out of 10 people won't be affected," say the Yes campaign. However, the vast majority of those that *will* be affected are the working people that are the lifeblood of the economy! If it's going to cost businesses thousands extra a week just to run, they'll look elsewhere and Manchester will lose out
- Charging only applies at peak times. That's right, those times at the start and end of the 9-5 business day when the majority of the workforce *have* to travel, barring an unlikely nationwide rescheduling of office hours
- The ridiculously wide outer ring of the charging area, which means that you can face a charge for going nowhere near the city centre
- And the most glaring hole in the proposals - the planned scheme for implementation. How the hell do organisers expect a tracking-chip system to work? Are they going to go and install trackers in every car in the world for them to be charged? How many receiver stations will have to be set up and maintained to track all these vehicles? And how much of the billions of "investment" pledged to the scheme would go on setup rather than new rolling stock?