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Ex-minister says c-charge "yet another tax"

10/06/2008

A former transport minister has said the introduction of a congestion charge in Manchester is just a way of "making motorists pay yet another tax".

Labour MP John Spellar told BBC's The Daily Politics that the charge comes at the expense of any other changes that "could actually improve congestion and improve the flow of people and goods".

He was speaking on the day that the government formally announced it would help finance public transport improvements on the understanding that a road toll is introduced from 2013.

"It almost seems that officials in the Department for Transport concluded some time back that this was the magic bullet that would solve [congestion]," he stated.

"Quite frankly I'd much rather they looked at schemes that actually managed the traffic."

These include getting the traffic lights to work properly and staggering school starting times, he remarked.

Manchester central MP Tony Lloyd has said a congestion charge would help reduce the amount of pollutants in the air, thereby improving public health.