Cllr M O’Neill

I believe that it is an abuse of democracy to allow the scheme to go ahead on the basis of councillors’ votes – as may well happen at the end of the ‘consultation’ period. This scheme should be put to the whole of the Greater Manchester electorate in a referendum. I understand that the overwhelming majority of the Greater Manchester public is against the scheme; the will of the people should not be ignored in this matter; it is outrageous that a handful of zealots [primarily] in the Labour Party might impose their will – against all sound judgement and reason – upon several million people in Manchester and its hinterland.

I make no apologies for calling it £5-per-day. Most regular commuters into Manchester will pay the full £5 at today’s prices. God knows what that figure will be come 2013 – and that’s before you get to the inevitable price creep for the infrastructure projects.

As for the improvements, I think it’s worth looking at whether the Salford taxpayer gets value-for-money in return for a congestion charge and £2bn mortgage. I simply don’t think it does.

First of all, just for clarification, the funding for the MediaCity extension is separate and has nothing to do with the TIF bid.

The only major project to affect Salford will be the Leigh Misguided Busway – a disaster from start to finish. By following the East Lancashire Road it bypasses all the communities that it purports to serve – Swinton, Worsley, Walkden, Boothstown and Ellenbrook. Indeed last year FirstBus came within a whisker of canning the 32 service that follows that exact route. By reducing capacity on the A580 it is going to cause gridlock in the nearby communities and cause more congestion than it alleviates. It should have been a complete non-starter and yet the bulk of the money allocated to Salford will be spent on this absurd scheme.

If GMPTA and Salford and Wigan Councils were serious about providing improved transport links from Leigh, they would look at reinstating the rail link together with a new park-and-ride station in Little Hulton.

As for the rest of your improvements, what proportion of the £2bn mortgage will they comprise? Real-time information and station improvements (even complete rebuilds) are small projects in the greater scheme of things and that investment should and could be being made anyway. Indeed stations like Atherton, Daisy Hill and Westhoughton were getting those improvements anyway under current funding arrangements – doubtless those projects will be included within the TIF documents to make them look better.

I’m glad we are in agreement about the buses. Investing in bus services without appropriate methods of controlling that spending is quite likely to result in huge amounts of money being poured down the drain without any benefits to passengers.

Firstly, your ‘£5 a day tax’ generalisation. This is complete nonsense! Yes it is up to £5 a day, however it is more complicated than that. Drivers would pay £2 for crossing the outer ring in the morning and a further £1 for crossing the inner ring. Outward peak-time journeys would cost £1 for passing the inner ring and £1 for passing the outer ring. So it is not a set £5 a day as you like to portray it as. Peak times will be between 7am-9.30am and 4pm-6.30pm. Drivers will NOT be charged outside of these hours.

Secondly I don’t think you have given justice to the benefits that the TIF bid will bring to Salford. More buses, more trams, more trains, an extension of the metrolink to MediaCity, improvements to both IRLAM and ECCLES train stations, real time electronic information for commuters, new bus rapid routes, extra yellow buses for schools, a new travel Smartcard and much much more.

I do share one cause for concern with you Iain and that’s with the GMPTE’s lack of say over where the buses will be running.