COUNCIL bosses gathered for a key meeting to debate congestion on Manchester's roads yesterday - and ALL of them travelled by car.

Members of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities met up to approve plans for a pay-as-you-drive scheme which is aimed at reducing traffic on busy commuter routes.

But even though their meeting was held at Bury Town Hall - 100 yards from the town's bus and Metrolink interchange - not one of the council leaders bothered to use public transport.

The M.E.N. monitored the travel arrangements of 12 senior councillors and officials to see if they were setting an example to other motorists by giving up their cars.

Every one of them chose to drive through morning rush hour traffic and then park in a council-owned pay and display car park opposite the town hall.

It also emerged that all of them were exempt from the é3.50 parking charge - which is the equivalent to the cost of a Metrolink return ticket between Manchester and Bury. The meeting of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) was attended by leaders of all 10 local authorities in the region as well as other senior councillors.

Debate

It was their first opportunity to debate plans for a congestion charge, which were revealed exclusively by the M.E.N. earlier this week.

Leading the convoy of councillors was Coun Roger Jones, who is chairman of Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority, and arrived for the meeting in a black five-series BMW.

He defended his choice of transport, saying: "I am no different to any other motorist."

Sir Richard Leese, Manchester's council leader, and the city's chief executive, Sir Howard Bernstein, were both dropped off in the council's chauffeur-driven car, which waited in the car park on Knowsley Street until the meeting ended.

The M.E.N. approached 12 council chiefs who attended the meeting to ask why they chose to add to the congestion on Greater Manchester's roads during the morning rush hour. The excuses they gave ranged from family commitments, rush-hour public transport congestion and afternoon meetings, to the complexities of the journeys involved. Some said Manchester's public transport system was simply not good enough. The AGMA meeting started at 10am but most arrived early for both Labour and Liberal Democrat party meetings at 9am. At the end of the two-hour meeting members voted unanimously for detailed plans to be drawn up for congestion charging and presented to the government by July in a bid to win millions of pounds for public transport improvements.

Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation, said he was surprised that none of the council leaders thought to give up their cars to travel to the meeting.

Example

He said: "This is certainly not setting a good example and it does smack of hypocrisy.

"The irony of these congestion charging schemes is that it is people like council leaders who will continue to drive because they can afford it. Whatever people say about Ken Livingstone, he does use the underground to get to work every day. Perhaps these politicians ought to have a word with Ken and take note of that because at least he does practise what he preaches on congestion charging.

"This is a very tough political decision and it isn't easy but they are getting off on the wrong foot. They should be leading by example and showing people that there are other ways of getting around Manchester."

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