Chamber View 7 - Friday 8 June 2007
Congestion Charging Special
On Wednesday May 30, the Chamber gave Manchester businesses the chance to hear about the new Transport Innovation Fund bid by AGMA regarding growth of the transport infrastructure across the coming years and the propsal for congestion charging in and out of the city centre. This podcast has been split into sections, with over one hour of material available for download.
Podcast One - The Presentations from the panel
0.00 - 0.36 - John Walding, PR Manager at the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, introduces the podcast
0.36 - 1.07 - Keith Johnston, President of the Chamber, chairs the session and opens procedings.
1.07 - 6.06 - Lord Peter Smith provides the background to the bid for funding, discussing the need for a package approach which backs up the bid for funding with the commitment to raise revenue through congestion charging.
6.06 - 06.37 - Keith Johnston introduces Penny Boothman of AGMA and Dave Newton of GMPTE.
06.37 - 10.21 - Penny Boothman discusses the history behind the bid and the process it has gone through so far. Within her presentation, she talks about the projection of employment growth across Greater Manchester, creating 210,000 new jobs in the next 10 years and the strain this will put on current transport provisions. She also sets out the requirements of the government in terms of the funding and the stipulations put in place by Manchester's representatives to make sure the bid benefits as many people/businesses as possible.
10.21 - 21.41 - Dave Newton sets out the plans for improvements in rail, metro and bus links for the region and then reveals the plans for a congestion charging model that will help to fund the later stages of the transport regeneration project.
21.41 - 24.34 - Penny Boothman looks at some of the AGMA tests and how the project plans to move forward and allow businesses and the public to take part in the discussion.
24.34 - 24.39 - Keith Johnston introduces Roger Jones, the chair of the GMPTA.
24.39 - 29.50 - Roger Jones discusses the reasons why AGMA has chosen to present congestion charging as the revenue raising element of the bid.
Quick links
If you don't have time to listen to the main points from the session, we have provided a couple of links to specific information within the podcast.
Listen to Lord Peter Smith's introduction to the bid.
Get the details about congestion charging and the improvements planned to the network as set out by Dave Newton of GMPTE.
Podcast Two - The Q+A
0.00 - 1.22 - Question 1 - Keith Johnston, President, GM Chamber.
Have we put our bid in for the TIF too early and will this aid the competition?
1.22 - 3.22 - Question 2 - David Hopkins, Audio design Services.
What about the congestion elsewhere in the region such as the area around Hazel Grove?
3.22 - 5.50 - Question 3 - Miranda Allan – Allan Environmental Consultants
If the bid is only partly successful and we get a portion of the money, will we still go ahead with charging? Will the transport improvements be well under way and running before congestion charging starts and will we constantly reassess the need for congestion charging?
5.50 - 6.40 - Question 4
Which groups of people will be elligible for discounts on the road charging?
6.40 - 8.20 - Question 5
Prices on public transport seem very high to me, will they be reduced?
8.20 - 10.10 - Question 6
Local haulage companies would welcome the move to reduce congestion, but will they be made exempt as they do not really contribute to peak time congestion?
10.10 - 13.45 - Question 6 - John Shonfeld, Tameside Chamber.
25% of Europe's buses are in the UK. Why are we looking to add to this? Also, trains are packed and car parks at stations full so how are these issues to be dealt with?
13.45 - 16.39 - Question 7
Shouldn't we be reducing the amount of people needing to travel into the city centre? Can't we look to build more businesses further out of the centre?
16.39 - 21.18 - Question 8 - Gordon McKennan, Trafford Centre.
What research has been done to suggest that congestion charging will not have an adverse effect on the competitivity of the region, in particular retail?
21.18 - 25.40 - Question 9 - Robert Pugh, Laingorourke.
This is a regressive tax that targets the motorist unfairly. Why do we have to agree to a package deal like this when central government should be improving public transport anyway?
25.40 - 29.44 - Views from a selection of Chamber members who attended the session, including Veronica Robinson of Robinson's Brewery, Julie Birch of Axon Birch and Paul Jeffries.
