Post Referendum
The results indicated a strong disapproval of the scheme with support ranging from only 16% to 28% and attracted a combined support of only 1/5 of voters. The AGMA initially refused to drop the scheme in interviews with the press after the count stating the results would be the subject of discussion at the next meeting, but at that next meeting they were officially dropped. Work then began in secret to salvage the work of the Tif with an agreement signed between the local councils 30th Jan 2009. and by May 2009 the 10 local councils had agreed a new funding proposal which costed and ranked the individual Tif spending proposals along with several other existing local transport proposals by need with three budget proposals combining varied increased top slicing of local councils existing transport budgets (20/40/60%) as well as a small council tax rise of 3% and a loan supplemented with already promised national government money not conditional on the congestion charge. On May 12, 2009, the mid-sized budget was selected allowing £1.2bn to be raised for spending on both the phase 3a and 3b metrolink extension along with various road and bus improvements. The proposed congestion charge, travel card, increased trains and most of the station improvements were dropped.
The rejection also led to the demise of the Transport Innovation Fund grants offered to councils outside Greater London between 2005 and 2010 who implemented congestion charging to fund large-scale capital investment in transport. After the referendum other councils such as Durham and Cambridgeshire which had submitted bids and others in the process of submitting withdrew their applications. In March 2010 the government formally began the process of closing down the fund and the £9.5bn funding which had been allocated to potential recipients between 2008 and 2015 was reallocated to plug the Crossrail funding gap contrary to its original intention of financing transport investment outside the capital.
Read more about this topic: Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund
Famous quotes containing the word post:
“Fear death?—to feel the fog in my throat,
The mist in my face,
When the snows begin, and the blasts denote
I am nearing the place,
The power of the night, the press of the storm,
The post of the foe;
Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,
Yet the strong man must go:”
—Robert Browning (1812–1889)