The voters of Greater Manchester paid more than £2.2M to throw out congestion charge plans in last month’s referendum.
And the returning officer, who spent 26 days in the area, was paid a £10,000 bonus on top of the agreed £600 a day as a reward for his ‘oversight, accessibility and overall accountability for the referendum process’.
The costs are part of the overall £24.1M bill which will be shared by the 10 districts of Greater Manchester for the aborted Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) bid, which was killed off by the overwhelming ‘no’ vote in the poll.
Each of the 10 local authorities has been invoiced directly by Electoral Reform Services for the £1.7M costs of producing, distributing, and counting postal votes, including postage costs. Another £500,000 of central referendum costs – including the returning officer’s costs – will be divided between the 10 councils according to their populations.
Manchester, with the biggest population of more than 340,000, will pay £365,039.28. The smallest borough, Bury with just above 140,000 people, will pay just £168,850.72. Elections expert Sir Neil McIntosh will receive £25,600-plus expenses for his services as returning officer.
After the result, transport secretary, Geoff Hoon, made it clear that without congestion charging, there would be no TIF money for Greater Manchester. But figures produced by Sir Howard Bernstein for council leaders show that a large part of the £24m cost went on justifying plans to civil servants at the Department of Transport.
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