CONTROVERSIAL congestion charging schemes could come to Greater Manchester within five years under new laws published today.

The Local Transport Bill, presented in the Commons today, will allow councils to introduce `pay as you drive' plans to speed up traffic.

All 10 local authorities in the Greater Manchester initially agreed in principle to charge motorists on about 15 main corridor routes into Manchester city centre and government funds were provided to develop pilot schemes.

Supporters say a congestion charge could bring in £3bn in revenue and government grants for improvements to the region's public transport network.

But four non-Labour run councils withdrew their support for the scheme complaining they were being kept in the dark about details of the plans.

Any move to charge motorists for using major routes will face massive opposition - around 1.8 million people recently signed a Downing Street website petition expressing opposition to road charging.

The Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Alistair Carmichael said today the government had to be open and honest about its intentions.

He said: "They must commit to a system which does not mean motorists as a whole paying more but just paying differently. If the public feel that road user pricing is just another cash cow for the Treasury then it will meet stiff resistance."

Today's draft Bill will not announce which areas will be running trials but the West Midlands, Tyne and Wear and Bristol, along with Greater Manchester, have shown an interest.

Tony Blair has denied it would be a `stealth tax' on drivers, promising that funds raised by the pilot projects would be spent on local transport.

He has said: "Congestion is a major problem to which there is no easy answer. We have not made any decision about national road pricing but local schemes would teach us more about how it would work."