Michael Taylor and the Congestion Charge
December 2 2008
Categories: Guests
One of the region’s most prominent business journalists, Michael Taylor, gives his thoughts on the hotly debated Congestion Charge for Manchester.
Manchester has always been a united city. In the face of adversity and in the cause of celebration, there have in recent years been immense displays of collective community effort that have got the city where it is today. The rebuilding programme after the IRA bomb in 1996 has seen a rebuilt centre, the delivery of the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and the rise of the city as a commercial and retail centre…
It has even embarked upon an experiment in political governance that is streets ahead of anything else in the UK today. A metropolitan board covering all the Greater Manchester local councils, with an agreement to act together for the greater good of Greater Manchester. And yet its first big test at a united front has caused consternation and disunity.
On the table is an audacious package of transport improvements including an extension to the Metrolink tram system all the way to the airport and lots of potted plants on stations, promises of extra carriages on trains and bus lanes.
In return for unlocking this money, the plan is to charge motorists a peak time congestion charge for driving in and out of the city centre and for crossing the M60. For Peel Holdings, owners of the Trafford Centre and for local councils in Trafford and Stockport it is a bad scheme that offers nothing but an extra tax and simply not enough for them.
On both sides the rhetoric has been fiery and the claims more and more outrageous. More than once advocates of the scheme have described Manchester’s public transport scheme at the moment as “rubbish” and “crap”. What they say is on offer is going to make it “world class”. Both claims are nonsense. The system is patchy, but actually pretty good in places. And the scheme on offer will only add to what is coming anyway from the next phase of Metrolink.
In response, some of the posturing from the “No” campaign has been hysterical and shrill, nitpicking at the wording on the ballot paper and issuing predictions about what the charge may one day become.
And in response to that the Yes campaign’s strongest supporter – bus company Stagecoach – has refused any advertisements from local councils opposed to the scheme. And in the face of all of that, the public have been left confused and frankly weary. The emphasis of the campaign has been on Manchester’s anticipated economic growth – something that requires a massive leap of imagination and faith, not least in this market.
Once the decision came down to a referendum, it was always doomed. People don’t make decisions in elections on long term visions, they vote for or against what will hurt their pocket and make their lives easier. This won’t, and the vote will be a resounding “no”.
The proponents of the plan will lick their wounds and claim that a once in a lifetime opportunity has been wrecked. That there is no Plan B. But there will be. This is Manchester. There always is.
Michael Taylor - Editor, Northwest Business Insider
