Voters Say No: C-Charge Seen Off

[JohnDotCom]

Voters Say No: C-Charge Seen Off

1 hour 43 mins ago
Sky News


The plan to create Britain's biggest congestion zone has been defeated in a referendum.
Voters Say No: C-Charge Seen Off


Voters have overwhelmingly rejected the Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund proposals in a postal vote that followed months of political mud-slinging.

More than 1.94 million ballot packs were posted to voters across the region over the past two weeks, with the deadline for returned ballots passing last night.
Sky News correspondent Mike McCarthy said the result "will provide a big headache for Manchester Council and central Government".
Bookmakers Ladbrokes had slashed odds on a "No" vote from 8/11 to 2/5.
A massive publicity campaign was waged by both 'Yes' and 'No' groups on both sides of the debate.
The Yes campaign said the region has a once-and-for-all chance to get billions invested in local transport.
But the No campaign said the plans are badly thought through and will cost the region jobs.
Speaking before the announcement, 'No' campaigner Sean Corker from Chorlton in Manchester told Sky News there was "overwhelming support for a complete rejection" of the proposals.
Mr Corker said the city "shouldn't be a lab rat to road pricing schemes" and insisted it was now up to the Government to "come up with a new public transport scheme".
"Now is not the time to be pilfering people's pockets," he said.
The result will have been followed closely in Whitehall.
The scheme would have charged drivers up to £5 a day to visit Manchester.
Despite its defeat, the proposals signal the future direction of road pricing transport policy for the rest of the UK and abroad.
The area covered by the proposed charge would have spanned about 80 square miles, corresponding to the area within the M60 orbital motorway.
By contrast, the original zone covered by the London Congestion Charge was about eight square miles.
There are six million more vehicles on our roads now than in 1997 and more two-car households than no-car households, according to the Department for Transport.

[75ContempSE]

Very good to hear, why should motorists have to pay to drive through any city centre, i have not driven to London since congestion charging was brought in there, its just another stealth tax by this thieving good for nothing labour government.

God knows what would happen if they considered congestion charging for Birmingham it would leave the town empty, because as soon as they brought it in there and people left there cars in a neighbouring borough and got the train in, they would only find another way to tax us either for using the train or for driving to the train station. We will never be able to win.

And lets all face it climate change and the reason behind all these green issues are just a load of rubbish, I don’t believe that the planet earth is under serious attack from us mere humans, planetary climate change has happened for millions of years, but now there are Rover 75 V6 and V8 drivers on the roads, lets tax the hell out of them and say were trying to save the environment..... perhaps we will believe them!!!!!

Perhaps not.......

Rant over

[mach1rob]

At last! Common sense wins the day!

[JohnDotCom]

They will find some other back door way to rip you off just you wait and see.
Look at Ireland and the EU.
Keep re-voting and they will get a Yes.
Shame we can't do the same with getting this bunch of Muppet's out of Power IMPO.

[Petrow]

Originally Posted by 75ContempSE

Very good to hear, why should motorists have to pay to drive through any city centre, i have not driven to London since congestion charging was brought in there, its just another stealth tax by this thieving good for nothing labour government.


And lets all face it climate change and the reason behind all these green issues are just a load of rubbish, I don’t believe that the planet earth is under serious attack from us mere humans, planetary climate change has happened for millions of years, ....

Perhaps not.......

Rant over

You are so right not to believe the greenie rubbish. Here's a bunch of scientists who agree with you:-
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.c...b-bd9faf4dcdb7
But Obama still listens to the ranting lunacy of Al Gore. Brown still listens to the fraudulent pseudo-science of the UN's IPCC. And so we all still suffer.

[Number 6]

The trouble with the people in this country is that we stand for the three card trick Speeding fines/parking fines/congestion charges and every thing else :- example what happens when you recieve a speeding fine in the post,the first thing they say is pay the fine straight away or the fine will increase,so what do you do you pay it with out question.
If every one questioned :- time,date,speed,had the equipment been certified that morning before and a miriad of other questions that can be asked the (which they are obliged to answer) then the whole system would grind to a halt,but no we just straght away pay up.

There is a good web site which explains how to go about this,and the end paragraph say"even if the fine is upheld cause the ******* as many problems as you can"

So dont just pay it QUESTION IT!!!!

Number 6

I was a number now I am a free man

[Simon]

Although I don't like speed cameras/cash machines (delete as appropriate) the Club will not condone speeding on public highways. Stick to posted limits and you'll avoid the fines in the first place. Thanks.

[Zeb]

Originally Posted by Number 6

The trouble with the people in this country is that we stand for the three card trick Speeding fines/parking fines/congestion charges and every thing else :- example what happens when you recieve a speeding fine in the post,the first thing they say is pay the fine straight away or the fine will increase,so what do you do you pay it with out question.
If every one questioned :- time,date,speed,had the equipment been certified that morning before and a miriad of other questions that can be asked the (which they are obliged to answer) then the whole system would grind to a halt,but no we just straght away pay up.

There is a good web site which explains how to go about this,and the end paragraph say"even if the fine is upheld cause the ******* as many problems as you can"

So dont just pay it QUESTION IT!!!!

Number 6

I was a number now I am a free man

If that is the best you can come up with for the revolution heaven help us.....

[Number 6]

Originally Posted by Simon

Although I don't like speed cameras/cash machines (delete as appropriate) the Club will not condone speeding on public highways. Stick to posted limits and you'll avoid the fines in the first place. Thanks.

I do not condone speeding in any way my point was that we accept every thing that is thrown at us with out question.you dont know if the vehicle caught speeding was not a clone of yours, its happened to me Fortuneatly I was able to prove that I was not in the country at the time.

Had I been in the uk at the time of the alleged offence, which was in my area I would still ask for evidence/proof before ii part with my money.

Number 6

[Raistlin]

Originally Posted by Number 6

If every one questioned :- time,date,speed,had the equipment been certified that morning before and a miriad of other questions that can be asked the (which they are obliged to answer) then the whole system would grind to a halt,but no we just straght away pay up.

Yes - excellent idea. In that way you can delay the inevitable and in the meantime dramatically increase the stress and heartache for people having to attend court on serious charges of which they know themselves to be innocent or those who have been offended against whose only wish is to see some sort of justice done because your dog in the manger attitude clogs up the system and wastes time which could be better served in the interests of those who are wholy innocent.

If you didn't do it - TAKE IT TO COURT.

If you did - PAY UP AND LEARN FROM IT.

There is a good web site which explains how to go about this,and the end paragraph say"even if the fine is upheld cause the ******* as many problems as you can"

Yes, the Judiciary regularly chortle at the ever more fanciful ideas churned out by these websites.

Unfortunately, the poor old punter ends up paying out more and possibly facing considerably more serious charges whilst the armchair barristers just shake their heads, abandon the gullible mugs to their fate and go on to espouse another hare-brained scheme.

I don't like the cash dispenser machines any more than the next man but I'm aware enough to know that the methods you support do nothing other than to cause irreparable damage to the case of the motorist in general who is seen to be always trying to avoid responsibility rather than proving himself worthy of education as opposed to stick.

I, along with many others have been working to achieve the same result with a good chance of success and several minor victories for the last few years and everytime we see the same tired old nonsense trotted out, to the detriment of our mutual goals it makes us wonder where the TRUE fighting spirit of the Brit has gone.

Deal with the root of the problem rather than pratting about whingeing at the symptoms.


Returning to the origin of the thread.

I think the people of Manchester have spoken with a deafening roar.

Unfortunately, I suspect that the plan will eventually be imposed upon them without the carrot of billions of pounds of investment in public transport