Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Transport, announced a £1.5billion grant for Greater Manchester authorities to move forward with the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) bid.
The bid would see congestion charging introduced in Greater Manchester, in return for £3bn of public transport improvements.
Leader of Stockport Council, Councillor Dave Goddard, said: "Today’s announcement is no surprise, but Stockport’s position remains unchanged. Huge investment is needed to improve our transport system but congestion charging is not the mechanism by which we should be paying for it. The survey we carried out last year showed that congestion charging was overwhelmingly rejected by 67% of the public and 78% of businesses in Stockport.
“The TIF proposals do not even provide Stockport with a fair share of the funding in return for congestion charging. Looking at the two major investments; a town centre access improvement package and a new transport ‘interchange,’ this equates to only £50-60million for Stockport - about 1/60th of the overall £3billion of funding. Clearly this is not acceptable.
“There is no mention of bringing the Metrolink to Stockport or its continuation to Marple. There is no mention of the construction of the much needed SEMMMS Relief Road, or even improved rail links and new stations, all of which would be of real benefit to Stockport residents and businesses. Until we agree on proposals which are acceptable to the people of Stockport, we will continue to oppose congestion charging.”
from Stockport council website author unknown
