No to C-charge
Manchester motorists slam plans to charge for driving into city
The people of Greater Manchester have spoken on congestion charge plans - and it's a big no. Just one in five voters were up for peak-time road charging into the city, which while ranking up costs for drivers promised to unlock up to £2.8bn in transport investment.
812,815 (79 per cent) of voters contested the plans with 218,860 (21 per cent) in favour. There was a turnout of over a million people, 53 per cent of those able to vote from the region's ten boroughs doing so.
Nigel Humphries from the Association of British Drivers declared it a great result. 'The world was watching the people of Manchester and they have seen through the great government transport bribe and voted to reject road pricing. Surely this means the government must now abandon its back door plans to tax, track and inconvenience drivers with road tolls.'
Leader of The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, Lord Peter Smith, was much less enthusiastic about the outcome: 'It is always a huge challenge to win any referendum and this one was always going to be particularly difficult - given the high feelings it has engendered.'
Drivers would have had to pay to cross two different rings around the city, one following the M60 orbital motorway and one surrounding Manchester city centre itself. A resounding 'yes' may well have set the precedent for other cities around the UK to follow, with this overwhelming contest weakening the argument for road tolls somewhat.
