Manchester congestion charge

[purits]

What?s going on with this congestion charge idea? The whole concept seems back-to-front.

Imagine if your city wanted a new hospital. How would you feel if Gordon Brown said that he'd build you a new one but only if you all got healthy, stopped eating cream cakes and donated the cash saved into the Turning Cream Cakes Into Hospitals Fund. You'd be fuming, wouldn't you? If something is worthwhile and to the Public Good then it should be done; it should not be dependent on raising funds by yet another stealth tax.
I thought that this Government believed in public transport - so why don't they just get on with it. Why do they have to complicate everything?

PS Who else thinks that congestion charges are going to kill cities? Employers will move to out-of-town locations and employees (fed up of rubbish inner-city schools / crime / inflated house prices) will gladly follow them.

Ha! First class travel system my arse. Whoever decided on that should be made to travel on the bloody tram for a week and sit on the filthy carriages surrounded by yobs. I've stopped using the tram 'cos I don't want to be mugged on my way back from the shops. Oh and they can use the piss smelling lifts from the platform as well.

I'm in favour of good public transport, who wouldn't be?

If public transport were reliable, accessible, cheap, safe and most importantly felt to be safe by everyone, there would be no need for a congestion charge.

It's just another bloody tax.

I agree Uriel - wrapped up in a nice green wrapper in the hope that we won't notice that it's exactly that - just another tax!
It's like the extra road tax for 'gas guzzlers' - when people with these cars already paying huge amounts of tax via the huge amounts of fuel they apparently buy!