AN attempt to take control of public transport in Greater Manchester from Labour has been defeated.

Salford Labour councillor Roger Jones has been re-elected for a seventh consecutive term as chairman of Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority after a Lib Dem bid to take control was snubbed by the Tories.

Each of Greater Manchester's 10 districts nominate members to the PTA and, following May's local elections, composition of the powerful authority is 16 Labour, 11 Lib Dem, five Conservative, and one independent.

In theory, the two opposition parties could have combined to unseat Coun Jones, one of the architects of plans to introduce congestion charging.

It would have meant Labour losing overall control of the transport decision making body for the first time since it was formed 20 years ago.

But at the authority's annual meeting, the Conservative group announced that it would not enter a pact and believed the chairman should come from the party with the most number of seats.

Coun Jones said: "I'm pleased I've been re-elected during a year in which the future of our transport system will be determined.

"If Greater Manchester decides to submit a bid to the government's Transport Innovation Fund in July, we could see a £3 billion investment in public transport over the next few years as well as the introduction of congestion charging."

But the meeting had to be adjourned as the parties failed to agree on the proposed allocation of seats on committees.

Coun Jones has a seat on the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities which is trying to win the approval of the public and businesses to bid for the £3bn government money to expand the Metrolink system.