Voters reject congestion charge

[phykell]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7778110.stm

79% voted against with a >53% turnout :cool:

Thank goodness for that - this would have hit the NW badly and of course it's been shown not to work in London. What a shame that so much money and time (three years) was wasted on this ridiculous idea.

I wonder what the fall-back plan is though...

[Burble]

I was genuinely expecting it to be a yes and was very pleased to be proved wrong.

[Del Lardo]

Fall back plan will be another vote and another one and another one until they get the result they want.

Cynical? me?

[Burble]

Cynical?

I prefer the term 'realist' :)

[Zirax]

The gov't blackmail tactics also went against them here. They were given the ultimatum of "say yes and get substantial investment or say no and get nothing!" I was glad when this was rejected. You do have to ask questions along the lines of "where the hell does all the fayre and tax money go if it isn't normally allocated to road/rail improvements?"

Mainly as this was a trial which would then be rolled out across the country. Manchester would have been the first.

edit:- I do wonder what they are going to do now and if they will ballot again.

[cheets]

I voted NO, infact parents and sister voted NO, live 30 miles away form Manchester and what they were offering for our area was crap, a few extra buses to Manchester, it only costs £3.80 for a return to the city off peak.

[phykell]

The principle of charging us extra to pay for a better standard of public transport is fundamentally wrong anyway and that precludes the question of whether a charge would actually reduce congestion (it wouldn't - as has been demonstrated quite clearly by the London debacle).

We already pay a huge amount of tax and the amount of road tax we all pay, plus the tax on fuel, is astronomical. This Government simply can't do their sums if the taxes we pay for our cars is being used to pay for education, health, etc. There should be a clear channel for transport taxation and subsequent expenditure, likewise, social/economic taxation and expenditure.

Imagine a taxation system which only took as much as it needed rather than taking as much as it can get...

[Blighter]

Imagine a taxation system which only took as much as it needed rather than taking as much as it can get...

And then wake up :p