GREATER Manchester is to get a £1.4bn transport bonanza which will trigger the go-ahead for a string of stalled projects.

The package - which will be brought in WITHOUT the need for a congestion charge - will finally see the completion of the Metrolink Big Bang, with extensions to Chorlton, East Didsbury, Manchester Airport, and Rochdale and Oldham town centres.

The money will also pay for:

A Stockport bypass linking the airport and the A6

The Mottram by-pass

A guided busway between Leigh and Manchester

The Wigan inner-relief road

Increased park-and-ride facilities across Greater Manchester

There will also be a `cross-city' bus package, with better and more frequent routes through the city centre.

Jobs
It is calculated the package could create 21,000 jobs.
The deal, agreed by the leaders of Greater Manchester’s 10 councils, is due to be revealed in Manchester today by Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon. It is being seen as a Plan B after a bid for nearly £3bn from the transport innovation fund was rejected in a referendum last year.
That cash would have come with the condition that the region imposed the ‘stick’ of a peak-hour congestion charge of up to £5 a day.
The new package will not have that condition attached.

Tax
The cash for the deal will be based on borrowing against small long-term increases in council tax – around £2 per person a year – and the government bringing forward money the region would otherwise have had to wait years to get.
Around £700m of the money will come from two sources. One is borrowing against increases in the part of council tax bills that goes to the region’s Integrated Transport Authority.

Borrow
The ITA’s levy will go up by three per cent in each of the next six years, and remain at those levels.
That equates to around £2 per person a year. The councils will borrow against the money those long-term increases will bring in.
The other is so-called ‘top-slicing’ of the individual council’s grants from government for transport schemes. Each council will agree to hand over 40 per cent of this money to help fund the package.

Airport
The government will also allow Greater Manchester to receive, all at once, the cash it would otherwise have had to wait for over a number of years. That will be worth just under £200m.
Further money will be raised from future revenues of the expanded Metrolink system, while the airport – owned by the 10 councils – will contribute towards its new tram line.
The government will provide around £165m for the Stockport by-pass.

Smartcard
Other parts of the TIF package – including increased yellow buses for schools, and smartcards allowing travel on different types of public transport – are not included in the new scheme.
John Leech, MP for Manchester Withington, described the package as great news for south Manchester.
Oldham council leader Howard Sykes said the announcement was fantastic news.
“This will put Oldham on the map,” he said.

'Credit'
But Susan Williams, Conservative leader of Trafford council, said: "This is not new government money. It is a deal worked out between the leaders of Greater Manchester's councils. "Geoff Hoon should not take the credit - Greater Manchester should."