Rebel council set to Bury proposed congestion charge

14 December 2007

Plans for congestion charging in Greater Manchester are under threat this week, as the county’s smallest borough launches a rebellion – because of its own traffic jams.

As government officials pore over the details of the bid to bring £3bn of public transport improvements in return for road pricing, Bury is likely to join Stockport and Trafford and withdraw its support for the plan on Wednesday. That would leave only seven of Greater Manchester’s district authorities in favour of the bid – which would collapse if just one more council was to change its mind.

Bury’s Labour group, which lost control of the council in May, has already broken ranks with Labour colleagues and demanded a referendum on the matter. And, with more than three authorities against, only a ‘yes’ vote in a county-wide referendum would rescue the plan.

When they decided to make the bid for Transport Innovation Fund money in July, council leaders from across Greater Manchester agreed to recognise ‘the need to examine investment options for reducing congestion between Ramsbottom and Bury, possibly utilising the heritage East Lancashire Railway and the potential for the extension of this railway via Heywood and Castleton’.

But Tory council leader, Cllr Bob Bibby, has now told Surveyor: ‘What has happened since is very, very little.’ As a result, the Conservatives, Bury’s biggest political party since the May elections, have tabled a motion for its council meeting on Wednesday which says: ‘This council is against the TIF bid if congestion charges are included in the final offer from the Government.’ Although Bury was the first town outside Manchester to get Metrolink, 15 years ago, congestion to the north of the town on roads to Ramsbottom and beyond has become critical.

Officials there have long hoped for a Metrolink extension to the town’s Bolton Street station, from where the private East Lancs Railway would link to the rail line from Rochdale to Manchester at Castleton.

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Rebel council set to Bury proposed congestion charge

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