Cllr Iain Lindley’s Diary

London Labour activist and candidate Rupa Huq is a regular commentator at the Guardian’s Comment Is Free, and she’s penned an article from afar on how important it is that Manchester gets a congestion-charge. Now, I’m not a regular fisker of articles, but I think Huq’s missive is more than worthy of a detailed analysis. She says:

the reality of daily life in the city for many is carbon-creating stop-start journeys of 10mph in rush-hour traffic and public transport that’s in need of an overhaul

I don’t think anyone disagrees with the fact that congestion can be a problem, and that our public transport needs improvement. It seems that the more idealistic Labour hacks like Rupa seem to think that congestion charging and the TIF money is some kind of magic bullet - an attitude I first encountered at the congestion charge debate prior to the local elections.

Here in Salford, there are no guarantees that congestion will reduce at all. There are no significant improvements to the rail service, and the proposed mis-guided busway will actually increase congestion by removing a lane from the East Lancashire Road - whilst speeding through all the local communities it is supposed to serve. Last year, First Bus were a matter of days from removing their 32 service due to lack of trade, even though it follows exactly the same route as the busway all the way from Manchester to Tyldesley.

The original north-south tram line was introduced to link the two Tory-voting parts of greater Manchester at the time; Bury and Altrincham.

Now this really takes the biscuit. Rupa wants us to believe that the original Metrolink line was a Tory plot! Possibly the most bizarre thing I’ve read in years.

Now, I was five years old in 1988 when the Metrolink was originally commissioned, but I can look up some facts from the time. There were ten Conservative MPs in Greater Manchester at the time. They represented the constituencies of Altrincham and Sale, Bolton North East, Bolton West, Bury North, Bury South, Cheadle, Davyhulme, Hazel Grove, Littleborough & Saddleworth and Stockport. Of these ten constituencies, the original Metrolink ran through three of them (Altrincham & Sale, Bury North and Bury South) and (I think) three Labour constituencies (Stretford, Manchester Central and Manchester Blackley). It ran through one Conservative Council (Trafford) and two Labour-controlled Councils (Manchester and Bury). The GMPTA at the time was solidly Labour controlled as well. Of course, only the Manchester section actually included new build - the Bury and Altrincham line were part of the existing heavy rail network. While we’re on the subject, the Eccles extension was approved by the Major Government at a time when there wasn’t a single Conservative Councillor on Salford City Council.

driving into the centre from both Eccles to the west (technically Salford) and Levenshulme in south Manchester, as I’ve done in the last couple of days, will not cost a bean.

Nope, sorry Rupa, this is arrant nonsense. Certainly commuters from Eccles into Manchester are well outside the inner-ring and will have to pay the congestion charge. The same goes for much of Levenshulme.

The charging will be quite modest – £1 for inner ring and £2 for outer ring

Well, first of all, a clever exclusion of the word “minimum” and the phrase “each way”. We already know that the charges could actually be anything up to £10 per day - and that’s at today’s prices, before we get to add inflation or any potential future rises. We’ve already seen potential construction costs for other transport infrastructure costs treble over the last year or so, what makes the TIF projects any different? Who is going to foot the bill if the £3bn worth of investment actually turns out to cost £9bn?

In Manchester, as everywhere else, the credit crunch is having all sorts of side-effects. The value of buy-to-let flats in the city centre is nosediving.

A-ha! Now we’re getting to the crux of the issue.

Like Sir Richard Leese - who continually talks as if he has a mandate from the whole of Greater Manchester - Rupa thinks that “Greater Manchester” actually means Manchester City Centre and a few miles either side. This figures - her only experience of the conurbation is a couple of years pottering the two miles from Chorlton to the University on Oxford Road. Rupa and her Labour colleagues couldn’t give a vine-ripened tomato ciabatta about local residents in Wigan, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Trafford, Stockport, Rochdale, Oldham or Tameside, as long as they’re alright. That attitude is one of the reasons why the congestion charge proposals are going to be rejected by a huge margin when a referendum is held.