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Bury drops out of congestion charge bid

13/12/2007

A third Manchester borough has withdrawn its support for plans to tackle congestion in the city-region.

Bury has joined Trafford and Stockport and pulled out of the Transport Innovation Fund (Tif) bid.

This involves millions of pounds of government money being pumped into the Manchester transport infrastructure on condition that a congestion charge is introduced.

At a town council meeting, Tory and Liberal Democrat councillors called for a Manchester-wide referendum on congestion charging.

Bury had supported the Tif bid in July on the basis that the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities agreed to tackle traffic congestion in Ramsbottom.

Councillor Bob Bibby said: "They said they would look at the problem and get back to me. That was one of the conditions of us supporting the bid in the first place."

According to Keepmoving.co.uk, Manchester is one of Europe's slowest-moving cities when it comes to traffic, with the average speed just 17 mph.