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COUNCIL URGED TO REJECT C-CHARGE
OPPONENTS of Greater Manchester's congestion charge plans are calling on another council to reject the scheme.
Plans to attract £3bn of public transport improvements in return for road pricing are on a knife edge with three of the 10 boroughs against the plan.
If one more council votes against it, the scheme would be doomed and this week councillors in Wigan are facing calls to join the revolt.
Opposition leader Coun Peter Franzen, of the Community Action Party, will urge the council to call on the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) to `oppose congestion charging and road pricing for Greater Manchester'.
He will also call on the AGMA executive, GMPTA, and Wigan's three labour MPs Andy Burnham, Ian McCartney, and Neil Turner, `to lobby the government for proper funding for public transport infrastructure improvements for Greater Manchester.'
Wigan's ruling Labour party has a 17-seat majority and the motions are unlikely to be passed at the monthly meeting on Wednesday, but the debate will be uncomfortable for council leader Lord Peter Smith - who is also AGMA leader.
Coun Franzen, a GMPTA member, said: "It will not go through but it will embarrass Labour."
Under the terms of the congestion charging bid, there must be a two-thirds majority within the 10 councils which make up AGMA for the scheme to go ahead.
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Be aware of is that we must insist on complete exemption from the Manchester scheme and not a 0% rate for PTWs.
Apparently this is what the taxi drivers accepted in relation the to the Greater London Congestion charge.
There seemed to be no difference at the time of acceptance but apparently it is then very easy to increase this 0% rate.
The rate for taxis in London will soon rise to 20% to enter the CC area !!
I hope our exemption was an exemption for PTWs and not a zero rate agreement?
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