THE £3m cost of a huge public consultation exercise on controversial plans for congestion charging in Greater Manchester has been blasted as `too high'.

Coun Susan Williams, leader of Tory-controlled Trafford council which is opposed to the road-toll scheme, told a meeting of local authority leaders the amount seemed `very excessive'.

And she told the meeting of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities the budget could be reduced if opinion polls were not carried out as part of the exercise. She said it would be `unnecessary' if a referendum was to be held before a final decision was made.

Manchester council leader Sir Richard Leese defended the cost of the consultation exercise saying: "It is a substantial amount of money - the equivalent of 50p per head of the population of Greater Manchester - but we are talking about one of the most significant things ever to have happened in our conurbation.

"Given that we are trying to communicate with a massive number of people, I don't think it is excessive. We have to tell people very clearly what they are being asked about."

He stressed again that at the end of the consultation process there had to be a single decision made.

"My proposition is that at the end of the process we have a referendum and that all 10 Greater Manchester authorities agree in advance to be bound by the result," he said.

If a referendum is held, Sir Richard said he would want the Electoral Commission to be an advisor on the project.

"We would have to show that the exercise is completely independent," he said.

Bury council leader Bob Bibby said he was happy with the idea of a referendum to canvass public views - but not a Greater Manchester one.

Coun Williams said she fully supported the idea of a referendum, but has already said she would want the results broken down borough by borough, and if Trafford voters said no, she would continue to oppose the scheme.

Councillors agreed to discuss the issue fully with their respective authorities and a full discussion on the idea will be held at the next meeting in July.

The AGMA meeting was told that if the pay-to-drive scheme is finally introduced, there was a case for making thousands of private-hire car drivers exempt from road tolls in addition to licensed hackney carriage drivers.

Coun Howard Sykes from Oldham, told the meeting: "In Oldham we have something like 90 hackney drivers but well over 1,000 private hire drivers. Private hire cars are an important part of public transport and should be exempt from paying the toll.

"You are going to be letting yourselves in for a lot of grief otherwise."

The meeting was also told that exempted vehicles should include refuse and waste-carrying vehicles, along with other public service vehicles.

Sir Richard Leese said: "Nothing about the draft plans is written in stone. There are all manner of option which will be thoroughly looked at."

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