At 12am today we found out the results of the referendum on the £2.8bn package. With 53% of the electorate voting in the postal ballot, 78.8% voted against the proposal. This is the comment just posted on Iain Dale’s Diary,   It is worth taking a look at what this means for government policy generally. [...]

Just posted the following Rant to Manchester Confidential, located here.   ..“ On the Congestion Charge. It may have gone on too long, but the truth has yet to come out. Three brief points 1)The proposals assume accelerating economic growth for the region, with a lot of the new jobs concentrated in the City Centre. This [...]

The Wevoteyes website has a page “fact vs fiction”. It 8 facts listed, but no fictions. That is strange, but, in the interests of clarifying the debate, let us have a look some of the facts. If I get any of this wrong, please comment and I will clarify in the interests of obtaining an [...]

The wevoteyes.co.uk website has totally ignored the costs has made some questionable claims of benefits of Tif Manchester. I will deal with some of the costs that are left out, and then look at the validity of the claimed benefits. In so doing I hope to add to the understanding of the package, to get [...]

The South Manchester Reporter published an article in October on the Stockholm experiance of congestion charging (here). This was largely based upon the Manchestertolltax.com article. There were those who doubted the effects of the Stockholm situation. I have written to the South Manchester Reporter the following:   Sir,   I would like to clear up [...]

Strange that when I searched Google through Virgin Media or Tiscali with ‘Congestion charge revenues’ or ‘Manchester Congestion Charge’, it no longer comes up with the sponsored link for    Sponsored Links: Find out the FactsCongestion charge? Not until £3bn is invested in public transport  www.gmfuturetransport.co.uk     It is not just the false claim [...]

Summary   The pro-congestion charge gmfuturetransport.co.uk has made what appears to be a false and misleading statement through their Google advertising. In fairness to the public, they should either 1)    Make a full admission and apology to the mistake on the front page of their website, and immediate withdrawal of the offending statement. 2)    Admit [...]

Further to my previous blog on the 30th September, I misintepreted the figures on the first of the two flaws. This was with a comparison of two projections from the submission.   Figure 71 – Reference case:Difference in people Crossing the inner ring (2005 to 2016) p.241 Highway Bus Rail Metro-link Total Pt Entering Regional [...]

            I have been churning through some of the Greater Manchester TIF submission document. Being a (slightly manic) Beancounter, I delved into the cost areas.   There are two flaws I would like to concentrate on.   Adding extra tram lines decreases peak time passengers   The adding of tram [...]