Three good reasons to vote NO in the C-Charge referendum
The people of Greater Manchester will be receiving their Congestion Charge referendum papers any day now. The referendum asks whether local people want £3bn invested in public transport, in return for the introduction of the charge. This £3bn will be made up, roughly speaking of a £1.5bn grant from the government, and a £1.5bn loan from the government which we will pay back using the charge.
Local Liberal Democrats have been leading the fight against the charge, and I will be voting “No.” Here are three reasons why:
1) The people of Greater Manchester deserve world class public transport WITHOUT another tax on local people already struggling to pay for fuel and food. The government should get its priorities right, and fund public transport properly to get rid of congestion and clean up the air. If it can find money for wars, ID cards and nuclear submarine replacements, it can find money for this.
2) The people of Greater Manchester deserve better than to be guinea pigs. No other city except London (with its substantial tube network, Oyster card system, buses, Crossrail, over-ground trains, boats and bikes) has a congestion charge zone of any notable size, so why should we? Manchester will become the least affordable place to travel to work in the country, and it will mean a £1,200 pay cut for everyone driving into town for work.
3) We should say “no” to government blackmail. Why should Manchester be bullied into accepting another tax when the government are withholding OUR money to pay for the transport we should already have? The government should be reminded that they work for us, not the other way round.
There are plenty of other reasons to vote “no,” and I’ll be writing about them between now and the end of the election period. But if you are voting between now and then, just remember – a “yes” vote will consign Manchester and everyone who lives here to another new tax which will probably never be repealed, and in all likelihood will expand in both cost and scope. Voting “no” will make government think again about how to give Manchester a public transport system it deserves without unfairly treating the hard-working citizens of our area.
Rick
Volunteer
Help in election
Report a problem
Join Us
Your views
Register to vote
Postal vote
Email updates
November 24th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
According to the Manchester Evening News Lib Dems across Manchester support the Charge and are campaigning for a yes vote. Are you saying that the Lib Dems have a different policy depending on whether you live in Prestwich or Crumpsall?
November 24th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Hi Dave,
Yes, the Lib Dems in Prestwich do have a different policy on this to the Lib Dems in Crumpsall. I think that’s fine.
I have said all along that this isn’t a party political issue, and is actually about where you live and what you’ll ge tout of the scheme. That’s why I don’t mention party politics when talking about it.
It’s true that Lib Dems in Bury are campaigning for a “no” vote, whilst those in Oldham and Rochdale are campaigning for a “yes.” It’s not true to say that Lib Dems across Manchester are in favour of the charge. We aren’t in Bury, and neither are some of our colleagues in other districts like Stockport.
The same is true of the other parties. Labour is split between Bury and Rochdale, for instance. And the Tories are too. That’s why at the public meeting on the c-charge in Bury on Saturday, there will be one Labour politician on the “yes side (Roger Jones) and one on the “no” side (Graham Stringer).
I was elected to represent Bury, and I think that what we trade for the c-charge in Bury is not good enough for us to vote “yes.” Some of my colleagues in other districts think the same, and others think different. I think that’s fine.Oldham and Rochdale, for instance, get far far more from this than Bury. If I represented the people there, I may well think that the obvious flaws and unfairness of this proposed system were worth putting up with to get the Metrolink.
Your comment makes it sound as if you think that we should all be the same just because we are Lib Dems. I don’t think that this is true. Nowhere in any party’s handbook does it say how to vote on this issue. In fact, what it says in the Lib Dem handbook is that we should represent our local communities. And that’s what we are doing in Bury, and that’s what colleagues are doing in Manchester.
This isn’t a national policy, it’s a local one. Lib Dems are united behind a national scheme for cutting congestion, which is to introduce road charges but as a REPLACEMENT to other charges, and in a far more sophisticated way than is proposed in this proposed scheme.
Rick