REDDISH MP Andrew Gwynne believes the planned referendum over the proposed congestion charge will simply confirm “a very clear no vote”.

The leaders of all 10 Greater Manchester authorities met on Friday (July25) and unanimously agreed to a public referendum on the issue, likely to be held in December.

But while welcoming the referendum Mr Gwynne claimed the voting system was very firmly in favour of the anti-congestion charge lobby.

Speaking after an Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) meeting in Bury formally decided to hold a referendum Mr Gwynne said: “Clearly I am pleased that a way forward has been found.

“However, this is not the referendum AGMA wanted. It is not a county-wide poll, but a borough by borough poll meaning the ten council leaders will only be bound by their area’s result rather than the total votes across Greater Manchester as a whole, which is what they had originally planned.

“This is now weighted firmly in the favour of the anti-TIF(Transport Initiative Fund) camp, who – under AGMA rules – only need four ‘no’ results across the various parts of the county.

The 'for' camp meanwhile will need to secure a minimum of seven ‘yes’ results across the ten boroughs for the proposals to succeed.

"That is a mammoth task which I think will be extremely difficult to get. My gut feeling is that the referendum will merely go through the motions to confirm what I think is likely to be a very clear no vote.”

Residents of all 10 boroughs will get to vote yes or no to one question in the referendum - the wording of which is yet to be agreed.
Lord Peter Smith, leader of AGMA, optimistically supported the referendum on Friday

He said: "Today's news is an important step forward for the people of Greater Manchester who now have an opportunity to vote on one of the most important decisions this city region has seen for decades.

"People will have their say on whether they want to say yes to a transformed public transport system in Greater Manchester,including a congestion charge, to ensure their region can continue to prosper."

But Mr Gwynne said: “The M60 slices my constituency completely in two which will penalise local travel journeys and in terms of real public transport improvements as an alternative, the information I have been sent from the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive (GMPTE) shows it is virtually non-existent.

“When the time comes, GMPTE and AGMA will have a very difficult job to convince my constituents that the proposed road charge is going to be worth the very minimal transport enhancements proposed in their area.”