Council meeting exposes Bury’s transport tax hike
Last night’s Council meeting was principally memorable for the moment when my colleague and the Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Bury South, Cllr Vic D’Albert, accidentally tipped a cup of water all over me. Suffice to say the evening wasn’t drowning in highbrow debate.
However, we did use our oppornutiy to question the leadership to some effect. Notably, we uncovered more interesting tit-bits about the costly deal struck by the Tory Leadership on public transport.
Bury residents face a rise in Council Tax because of the recent deal, which is pretty terrible for the borough when you look at it in the context of every other borough in Greater Manchester. The deal secured funding for 12 major transport projects, but none are in Bury.
The improvement package will see £1.4bn invested across the city region. Local Authorities have agreed to increase their local transport contributions to pay for much of this amount, which will mean a £39 per year increase in Band D Council Tax for Bury residents. 9 of the 10 districts in Greater Manchester have “priority funded” projects, but Bury does not. Its only gain, improvements to the East Lancashire Railway, is at the bottom of a list of four further projects still awaiting funding guarantees. So, essentially, we sent the Council Leader to negotiate on our behalf, and he managed to sneak a single project in for Bury, 16th on a list of 16. Remind me not to call him if I’m ever in a hostage situation…
All 10 council’s in Greater Manchester are being asked to pay the same amount more, yet Bury is the only council that doesn’t get a priority funded improvement. We aren’t getting a fair slice of the cake, and the Tories in Bury have negotiated a very bad deal. We are now asking the people of Bury to pay more for nothing. Local people are paying for better public transport in Wigan and Trafford, whilst Bury still doesn’t have the facilities it needs. We wanted the Tory leadership to fight for Bury, but they’ve failed.
The ELR investment will be welcome if it happens, but it’s not guaranteed, and does nothing to help the massive holes in public transport provision in other areas of Bury. In fact, if you live south of the town centre, or don’t get the train from there into Manchester, the increased Council Tax brings precisely nothing in return. It’s just not good enough.
Rick
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