Anna Bailey, leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, writes on the congestion charge  proposals which are due to be debated again this month.

Revised proposals for a Cambridge congestion charge will be debated this month at the Greater Cambridge Partnership, and in October at Cambridgeshire County Council.

Ely Standard: Anna Bailey is the leader of East Cambs District Council.Anna Bailey is the leader of East Cambs District Council. (Image: EDC)

 

Rumours of a u-turn by the Liberal Democrats who may now vote against the policy that they put forward are rife, but so far the only public statement they have made is that they “have concerns” and may be seeking a pause.

The changes offer the worst of all worlds – charging drivers but with vastly less income to pay for bus service improvements (£465m less over 13 years to be precise).

An already bad public transport offer is only set to get worse. The cost of implementing the scheme can surely only rise (modelled at £20m annually) with the ridiculously increased complication and bureaucracy of the new proposals.

I also fear that once the charging infrastructure and back-office is in place we will only ever see increases to the charge, more draconian charging hours and erosion of discounts and exemptions into the future.

Labour’s CAPCA mayor Nik Johnson also wants to get in on the act. Mayor Johnson’s new Local Transport Plan, which is due to be debated at the Combined Authority this month, is totally focused on “demand management” delivered through various means such as an “area wide road user charge” and “access and capacity constraints” to name a couple.

I will not be voting for it.

It is the job of elected representatives to represent the people. The people have said “no”.

We need to abandon road charging completely, get back to the drawing board, and design a public transport system fit for the 21st century that is so attractive, efficient, fast, safe, cheap and easy that people want to use it. It is no less than Cambridgeshire deserves.