Richard Baum

Last night’s meeting of full Council was very successful, not only for local Liberal Democrats, but I think also for the long term future of the people of Bury, as the Lib Dem amendment to support the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) bid only at the exclusion of congestion charging passed and became Council policy.

This emotive issue has been central to local politics ever since I was elected, and whilst others have wavered in the Council chamber and flattered to deceive, Bury Lib Dems have been resolute in our opposition to the bullying imposition of this unfair tax since the beginning. We remained so throughout, and last night we won.

Even last night, Bury Labour walked the thinnest of ideological tightropes by refusing to reject the TIF bid if it contained congestion charging (they abstained in the vote on our amendment), but maintaining their opposition to the charge if applied nationally. They proposed an amendment of their own which indicated support for the charge if decided locally - in other words by the Labour-run Councils of Greater Manchester. Thankfully this didn’t pass. Labour showed themselves up last night as unable to publicly denounce the charge.

You’re either for the TIF bid as a whole, or against the congestion charge part of it. We are the latter. We want the £3bn investment in public transport, but we want government to pay, not local people. We want a rejection of government’s response to the TIF bid if it contains proposals for congestion charging, and now we have convinced Bury Council to back us.

Bury is now the latest Greater Manchester Authority to come out against congestion charging, which makes it very difficult indeed for AGMA (the Association of Grater Manchester Authorities) to press ahead and accept any government scheme which introduces such charging.

I proposed the Lib Dem amendment which was passed last night, and I will post the speech I made in support of it on this site in a moment so you can read why we think that the TIF bid is simply unacceptable with congestion charging, and why Greater Manchester deserves quality public transport paid for by government, not through a congestion charge.

Rick