GREATER MANCHESTER'S CONGESTION CHARGE LITE?

Back in 2001 good old Gordon Brown dangled the magical incentive carrot before the faces of the people.

Diesel is cheaper to run, gets you better millage and what's more it is also better for the polar bears, is what we were being told at the time. Gordon was struggling to come up with a plant to cut emissions that were agreed upon several years earlier at Kyoto in Japan.

A protocol agreed upon by the UK in 1997 which would require all signatory counties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the premise that (a) global warming exists and (b) human-made CO₂ emissions have caused it. All of which was to come into force in 2005.

Pre 2001 there were around 3.45 million diesel vehicles plodding up and down the roads of Britain, a figure that since then has come to more than double to over a staggering 8.1 million by latest figures.

Scroll forward 16 years and now It is comes as quite a shock to motorists to hear Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin warning those people that followed government advice, that we face a hike in taxes designed to punish us for doing what we were told was the right thing to do.

It seems that diesel is not the clean wonder fuel we were told it was, yes it has lower carbon (CO2) emissions, but mile for mile diesel cars pump out far more micro particles as well as dangerous levels of (NOx) Nitrogen Oxides which not only contribute to higher atmospheric temperatures but also cause over 29,000 premature deaths in Britain that are attributed to air pollution.

Salford Star did a wonderful article last year with further information about death rates associated to air pollution in Salford which can be found on this link.

The governments race to hit pollution targets has like an old clunking diesel of the past, inadvertently backfired.

Back on December 2016 then Labour candidate and now GM Mayor, Andy Burnham, declared that he was ruling out a congestion charge, which he said was an unfair tax on people who had no public transport alternative.

However it now seems that plans are now afoot to slide a congestion charge lite through the backdoor, with the idea of making the drivers of those nasty polluting diesels we were all told to buy back in 2001 pay an unbelievable £7.50 for the privileged of being able to drive via certain routes within the City.

London has already announced plans to bring in a similar scheme which will cost £12.50 per day, sadly Greater Manchesters transport infrastructure is nowhere close to being on par with that of the capital.

MP for Blackely and Broughton Graham Stringer immediately shot down the plans by stating that they had nothing to do with reducing air pollution at all.

"Defra recommended that people drive diesel cars and now wanted to punish some of the poorest drivers in the country" he said, whilst going on to suggest that the key to solving the problem was to ensure much better regulation of busses as well as a funded diesel scrapage scheme to help those who bought diesels on what turned out to be flawed government advice.

Many within Salford have regularly complained about the state of traffic flow within the city, with the introduction of bus lanes in some areas compounding traffic problems. The restrictions placed on some arterial roads in and out of Salford have led to long delays and traffic flow issues which not only delay journeys but also mean that cars are spewing out even more particulates whilst idling in traffic jams.

Areas around the A580 and Chapel Street, Regent Road and the Barton roundabout in Eccles are heavily affected. The smart motorway scheme has added to the problem as cars are now diverting from the motorway and cutting through places like Monton and Worsley to try and lessen journey times and avoid queues. 

A recent experiment with the suspension of a bus lane along Eccles Old Road in front of Salford Royal Hospital has been positive and shown clearly that its removal has resulted in much better traffic flow around visiting hours to the hospital. Previously traffic was backed up as far as the gildabrook roundabout and on some days down onto the slip road and further along the M602.

Sometimes the measures that are put in place to fix the problem cause much larger problems.

Conservative councillor and candidate for Worsley and Eccles South MP; Iain Lindley has set up a petition for people to sign on the link bellow

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJvaVESy25P2D2ykyxYATdplb2TjigwOkHAHTzXpbN2hDKyQ/viewform?c=0&w=1

Salford already has some of the highest air pollution rates in the country and was ranked second highest in May 2016 so something DOES need to change, it should not come at the expense of those who switched to diesel with the best of intentions after botched government advise.

Motorists have been an easy target for taxation for far too long and to add a daily £7.50 charge to those trying to get to work would be plain insulting.

So as Andy has already told us that this would be in his words "an unfair tax on people who had no public transport alternative", why is it that now he has been elected that these proposals have come to light?

Charging diesel drivers for using certain routes may not be a full blown congestion charge but it is still congestion charge lite. A watered down version which will affect those who, after all were just doing the right thing.

Mr Stringer is correct, get the busses better regulated. Force companies to use cleaner engines, maybe open up bus lanes to car sharers and people with disabilities. In some areas get rid of bus lanes altogether as has been proven with the Eccles Old Road lane, they often cause more issues than they solve.

But don't try taxing a City that has already overwhelmingly voted against a congestion charge, don't attempt to slide it in by the back door.