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1:00 am, June 16, 2008
Our View: Congestion charge? No thank you

We said on this page last week that the public will have the final say on congestion charging when the local politicians behind the proposals have to seek re-election. Problem is, it will be too late by then to make any difference.

Despite, or indeed because of, strong suspicions that a referendum would result in a resounding "no' vote, the plans are being railroaded through.

Within four months we will be irrevocably committed — if our over hasty political leaders pull down the initial tranches of the Transport Innovation Fund money at the first possible opportunity.

Having seen former Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority chairman Roger Jones fall on his sword, the MPs and councillors who support the TIF bid must know they are signing their own political death warrants but like the gods in the final act of a Wagner opera they seem resigned to their fate.

They will not even be stopped if the people of Bolton vote against in their unique poll, making four boroughs opposed to congestion charging. The Local Transport Bill currently going through parliament will establish Integrated Transport Authorities to replace existing Passenger Transport Authorities. These new bodies could make decisions based on a majority vote, removing the need to have at least two-thirds in favour.

This undermining of democracy is disturbing. It suggests the supporters of congestion charging know they cannot win the argument out in the open.

We said back in December that there was insufficient evidence of the need for congestion charging. With the oil price racing towards $200 a barrel, forcing people to reappraise the cost of motoring, there is even less justification for committing to 30 years of road pricing.

Surveys of businesses and of their employees tell us that congestion charging will be bad for the city centre and for people who make a living there. Last year, a YouGov poll for Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank found that 81 per cent of small businesses in Manchester and the surrounding area did not support road pricing. In fact, there was more resistance to the idea in this region than anywhere else in the country.

Recruitment firm Stark Brooks has just done a survey of employees and of the 1,627 people who responded, 71 per cent said they would be put off looking for a job within the congestion charging zones. In the battle for talent, the city centre will be fighting with one hand tied behind its back.

The additional investment in public transport which congestion charging will bring is not sufficient to justify taking such a big risk, whose downside would entail serious damage to the city region's economy for decades to come.