Greater Manchester CAZ Congestion zone update

[andy43]

Was a thread but I reckon it got binned

After months of deflection and trying to blame government mandates for the 493 square mile £256 million congestion zone that's now been put on "hold" after public outcry,
finally Andy Burnham has admitted the charges were nothing to do with government -
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/great...

Burnham said:

My argument is that local authorities were manoeuvred into a position where they had no choice. Our 10 (local authorities) were given a legal direction to clean up the air by 2024 and, like Birmingham, like Bradford, like Portsmouth, they looked at the evidence and the only way they could do it that quickly was by using charges.
So you are technically right to say the government didn't explicitly say you've got to do it via charges, but they effectively did because of the deadline that they imposed on people. I am conceding to you, the way you put your question is technically right, but I think it's duplicitous of central government to leave local authorities taking all of the blame.

He's still forgetting two of those ten councils actually joined the scheme of their own accord.
Boris's comment on the scheme a few months ago was it's "unworkable". For once he's not lying.

They have chopped trees down to make space for new signs, installed a £78 million ANPR system right across the Manchester area, stretching from sheep-filled fields to other sheep-filled fields 20 miles away, signed multi-million pound 5 year contracts with Egis to maintain and monitor the system, and when the scheme was put on hold the sign company was paid another £186,000 to drive around with stepladders to slap 'under review' stickers over the signs... oh, and we have a new Transport Commissioner here too, he left TFL in London with a £600,000 pay off and started work up here last month. The smell here is awful...

[Tankrizzo]

The Portsmouth scheme also doesn't charge private cars, motorbikes or vans. Fkin knobber.