Manchester has voted overwhelming against a local congestion charge, similar in style to the charge in London. Over a million people voted in the ballot which had a high 53% turnout.
The charge, together with a massive injection of cash from national government, would have meant massive investment in public transport and infrastructure, oh, and the ability to get from place to place in a reasonable time.
| Yes | No | Rejected | Total votes | % Yes | % No | |
| Manchester | 43,593 | 113,064 | 250 | 156,907 | 27.78% | 72.06% |
| Rochdale | 17,333 | 61,686 | 118 | 79,137 | 21.90% | 77.95% |
| Bolton | 20,529 | 76,910 | 167 | 97,606 | 21.03% | 78.80% |
| Bury | 16,563 | 64,001 | 94 | 80,658 | 20.53% | 79.35% |
| Bolton | 17,571 | 68,884 | 141 | 86,596 | 20.29% | 79.55% |
| Salford | 14,603 | 79,326 | 105 | 94,034 | 15.53% | 84.36% |
| Stockport | 24,090 | 103,706 | 169 | 127,965 | 18.83% | 81.04% |
| Tameside | 16,323 | 83,105 | 124 | 99,552 | 16.40% | 83.48% |
| Trafford | 20,445 | 83,568 | 142 | 104,155 | 19.63% | 80.23% |
| Wigan | 27,810 | 78,565 | 132 | 106,507 | 26.11% | 73.77% |
| Total | 218,860 | 812,815 | 1,442 | 1,033,117 | 21.18% | 78.68% |
figures from the Middleton Guardian.
The area of highest support for the charge was Manchester proper, whilst the outlying areas were more firmly opposed - but at the end of the day not one area voted in favour of adopting the charge.
Annie Leonard and co. (
Adrienne Mayor (
Ed Howker and Shiv Malik
Floella Benjamin (
Mark Watson (
Tim Jackson (
David Wilson (
Clive Lord (
Nickie Roberts
5 comments:
Gutted. And very sad that both the SWP and Respect are presenting it as a triumph for the working class, which sadly it is not.
Worth noting that the percentages are very similar to the Edinburgh referendum a year or two ago.
I totally agree Strategist.
I think it's also worth noting that in London they would never have won a referendum on introducing the charge but it's pretty clear that if there was a ref. today on keeping it - that would win, because it's improved the place - particualrly for the poorest.
I think there's a myth that this is a "flat tax" - when that's only the case if you think the price of bread is a flat tax too (which you could argue but it's a very particular way of looking at things)
Less congestion, better public transport and better quality of life in our city centres would improve the lives of the poorest and the left just voted against that. Not to mention it's impact on climate change.
I'm beggining to understand that Marxists who supposedly base everything on economics actually don't understand even the ABCs of economic realities - like nothing is free and you can't spend the money saved on scrapping trident five hundred times over.
Local Green Party response here
Here in Coventry, our buses are private. The bus operators don't have a city-wide referendum when they want to raise the prices. They don't have a city-wide referendum to ask us if the buses run on time, or are unclean, or unsafe, or if we want to be able to get change from the driver (we need to use exact).
Maybe Manchester just shouldn't have had a referendum!
Oh well fair enough I suppose if the residents of Manchester aren't in the mood for it, lets kill the whole planet.
Of course what they should be doing is sorting out public transport so the mancunians aren't afraid to vote "yes" next time.
I agree Cruella - we need to get better at persuading people and to ensure that the alternaitves are in place.
On a related issue - how will we be able to disuade people from taking short haul flights if the trains are unreliable and more expensive?
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