People across Greater Manchester are taking part in a referendum on congestion charging, and will be receiving their ballot papers in the next day or two. My mother has just gleefully announced that her’s has arrived already. Mine is probably lost somewhere amidst the plethora of taxpayer-funded pro-charge literature being plastered across every flat surface in the north of England, but I am sure it will arrive soon enough.

There are plenty of reasons why I will be voting “no,” and I hope to be able to go through a few of them here in the coming days.

Today’s choice is… Because it’s another unfair stealth tax.

People driving from Whitefield into Manchester and back at the usual times for working people will be charged £5 a day to do so. That’s £1,200 per year, or the equivalent to a month’s take-home pay for an average earner in the region. That’s £5 on top of parking charges and petrol.

I have no vested interest in this financially – I do drive a car to work, but I won’t pass a congestion charge zone and so won’t pay a penny if this charge is introduced. But I do have a sense of social justice, and even though I won’t pay a thing but will benefit from improved public transport, I still think that the people of Manchester are being asked to pay far too much in return for far too little. It doesn’t matter if you earn £10,000pa or £1,000,000pa, it’s still a fiver a day.

It is simply not right that this additional tax is imposed. The cost of public transport is already sky high, and will not come down if the c-charge is agreed to. The price of a single Metrolink ticket into Manchester from Bury is three times the price of the maximum Oyster fare to travel across Zone 1 on the London Underground. The effects of the charge will be catastrophic for those on marginal incomes already paying through the nose to get about. Public transport run by profit making private companies is, sadly, often the least convenient and most expensive form of travel. Equalising that out by making cars more expensive is not the way to a better society. We should be making public transport cheaper by investing in it properly.

Road charging in principle is fine, but let it be a replacement to tax, not an additional tax. All the proposed charge will do is make it easier for the wealthy to drive to work, whilst turning trams and buses into mass cattle trucks for the poor. It isn’t what I want my Manchester to become.

The c-charge is meant to be part of the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF). But where’s the innovation in a single flat fee paid by all regardless of journey type of income or vehicle? It’s crazy, it’s about revenue raising, and it’s an unfair tax.

For this and the host of other reasons, use your vote to reject the charge. Vote No.

Rick