Pledge “MancCCharge”
"I will vote against any councillor or MP who supports a congestion charge in Manchester. but only if 100 other local people will do the same."
— Jake Long, Road Freedom Campaigner (contact)
Deadline to sign up by: 25th January 2008
105 people signed up (5 over target)
Country: United Kingdom
Place: Manchester (view map)
More details
Manchester City Council is proposing to introduce congestion charging. Sign this pledge as a message to the council to let them know that you are strongly opposed to the scheme.
This pledge has now closed; it was successful! You might be interested in these other pledges:
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- pledge to pay £1 or £2 per goal that Michael Gash scores this season and I will make a £9 donation now to the playing budget at https://secure.myfootballclub.co.uk/donation
- turn the central heating up to full for 24 hours every time Plane Stupid stop working class people going on holiday
- create a blog for the sole purposes of reporting, analysing and publicising the most interesting, important or amusing reponses to Freedom of Information requests produced on WhatDoTheyKnow
See more pledges, and all about how PledgeBank works.
Things to do with this pledge
Comments on this pledge
Current signatories (
= they've done it)
Jake Long, the Pledge Creator, joined by:
- Peter Woodier
- andy dale (www.no2toll.co.uk)
- Chris Roughneen
- Rachel Kirkham
- Ace Riley
- Dan Flower
- Margie Tate
- MCV
- Robert Paul tranter
- Gervais AJ Henderson
- Graham Harkis
- matthew Martin
- Sean Corker (ABD)
- Tim Frost
- Andrew Smith
- Chris Burmajster
- Kate Roughneen
- Simon butler
- rebecca stanway
- damian brumby
- ANTHONY JOHN HARGREAVES
- Carol Hennis
- ROSS OLIVER WHALLEY
- J Roberts
- Sally Weeks
- Dean Butterworth
- Elizabeth Robillard
- bernard
- Tony Sims
- Alan Goodall
- M Slattery
- Craig Healey, English Democrats
- SIMON CARRINGTON
- Andy Bullock
- Paul Myers
- Rob Hardman
- Brian Bracegirdle
- kelvin stanley
- Steven Hemsley
- Jesse Smith
- Shebnem Harris
- Tom Vallely
- James Whelan
- Peter Roberts
- Woodley
- carl bennett
- Steve Collins
- Neil Birchall
- cath mossom
- CHRiS SALTER
- debbie grimshaw
- Christopher Smith
- Gregg Howarth
- Steve Dawson
- Bill Appleton
- reita sheehy
- Sean greenwood
- Ben Hughes
- michael Painter
- Jonathon Clegg
- Mark Kreissl
- martin william sloan
- sam forlan
- Steve Savage
- Brian Polkinghorne
- M W Fraser
- Jane Maxwell-Brown
- Bob Stapley
- Guy Mansfield
- Michael Smith
- Derek Wallwork
- Mark Scott
- Nick Fuller
- stephenc
- Emma Wilkinson
- Carl Davis
- Peter Cope
- S.Moore
- Susan Browning
- Barbara Guisbourne-Hilton
- Carole Fletcher
- Europe
- Graham Kidd
- Ged Haydon
- kirsty minchella-storer
- Rosa Crosbie
- Paul Davenport
- Raymond Foster
- alan jackson
- 16 people who did not want to give their names, 2 of whom have done the pledge
Thanks
I worry about my children getting asthma. I worry about the effects of pollution.
If more people used public transport, we'd live fitter, healthier lives, and people wouldn't have to work such long hours just to keep cars on the road.
Do the maths: a bus pass for greater Manchester costs just £550 per year.
@ Nick - public transport cannot cope NOW so tell me how it would cope tomorrow if all drivers elected to use it? It would not. Plus in the unlikely event of your children developing asthma it would most likely be from over-reliance on cleaning products in the home than traffic fumes. And before you say "A bus pass is great!" tell me how I get from Irlam to Glossop for 0800H on a bus? Even the 'great' Councillor Roger Jones (Chairman of GMPTE) admits I cannot so for people such as me this proposed charge is nothing but a tax simply for working!
For myself and my family, Public Transport, and occasional taxi and trains works fine as a lifestyle choice at the moment. I have no doubt that if more people were "encouraged" to use public transport, it would improve still further.
I appreciate you can't get to Glossop from Irlam for 0800H on the bus. But then, as I don't run a car, (a) I don't have so much pressure on me to get a high-paid / awkward-houred job to pay for my car to get me to work to pay for my car; or (b) through money saved, I would have the freedom to work nearer where I live (or live nearer where I work) so I don't have to travel so much.
As a result, I get more time to do what I want with.
(Of course, there are some jobs that require a car, and that's a different situation.)
Isn't this the kind of sustainable lifestyle we should be adopting in the face of global warming? If the congestion charge encourages people to think about these options, then that's a Good Thing, isn't it?
Thanks for your concern about "over-reliance on cleaning products in the home". We are aware of the risks and use them very sparingly - we are ALSO aware of the risks from pollution. Hence the comment above.
visit www.no2toll.co.uk, takes 30 secs to sign up to the site so you can see the forum
this is a really new website but i hope the interest will build quickly as alot of people are very passionate about this subject - especial those that live in or around manchester in areas of poor public transport, who will get fleesed by the gonvernment/ local councils if congestion charging comes into force
Without some form of severe coercion from government people will not think beyond their own convenience. Without this charge public transport may never improve and without it we may never start to seriously think about homeworking/tele-commuting. Keeping the cars is the lazy alternative.
Road Freedom campaigns smack of selfishness. How about the freedom to breathe clean air, the freedom of our children and future generations to have a clean, safe and sustainable planet.
http://www.petitiononline.com/mancong/pe...
sign this and move this forward.
I live 20 miles away from my place of work on a route that has no public transport alternative, I car share with a colleague to cut down on traffic, I'd also love my work to enable me to work from home, but not all jobs are as flexible as that. you people all keep going on about the environment too, its only estimated that the congestion charge will reduce rush hour traffic by 13% - thats nothing when you think about it, especially when this 90% of the 13% of drivers will simply drive travel outside of the rush hour period because they DO have flexible jobs that allow it, or even worse will travel further to avoid the charges, therefore damaging the environment even further. if you want clean air to breathe move out of the city to the countryside like i have, oh no you cant do that cos it would require a car wouldn't it - sorry
beacuse more people will avoid the citys and routes where they can to save money by traveling further or to alternative locations - yes the citys congestion may be reduced by n% but there will be additional miles made away from the congestion zones than their would normally - the government know this and thats why they haven't made a big deal about the environment in their recent defences of the national charge scheme - see the bbc website Tonys email.
PS if you want to argue about climate change visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/G...
This issue about living close to where you work has to be an integrated lifestyle choice - integrated because it involves making decisions about where you live, where you work, how you get there, ALL AT ONCE. In fact it has to be more than that, it has also to be about companies choosing where there jobs are located, how flexible their working practices are, etc; and the provision of transport services so that more environmentally friendly choices can be made. Where these issues are not integrated, then, yes, unfortunately, additional burden does end up on already burdened individuals.
At the same time your attitude, Paul, seems a little bit bloody-minded: in your post to me, "Well move of the city, so you can avoid the problem"; in your post to Sarah, "Well, Congestion Charging won't work cause we'll find a way around it anyway."
I'm sorry, but our current lifestyle - and your attitude - is not sustainable in terms of (a) the environment; (b) the health of those who live near roads; (c) even the health and wealth of drivers.
That is the whole point: we need to change before the planet inflicts change upon us. And that will begin with the most vulnerable.
Choosing to "carry on regardless" and be part of the problem is not enough: we HAVE to find ways of being part of the solution - even if its just one step at a time!
Who should be allowed to drive and who should be taxed off the roads?
Or should we get everybody off the roads? In which case, how would goods and services be provided?
Modern society has made the car an essential part of it. Without one, you are missing a limb.
Even if you do not drive personally then you are still heavily reliant on private transport. Everything that you buy, everything that you use, every repair, every delivery made by your company, every sales representative and most workers use private transportation.
Just how much do you think that road user charging will push up retail prices for all those goods and services that cannot be brought to you any other way than by road?
We need investment in alternative fuels so that we can carry on driving when the oil runs out, but other than that, the environmentalist argument is nonsense.
Jake is right there are other better more proctical ways of tackleing the environmental effects like alternative fuels, and there are better ways of tackling congestion too.
A further consideration is this: Would it be OK for me to stand at a bus stop and demand money for petrol? - Assuming the answer is NO then: Why should I as a driver subsidise somebody else’s mode of transport?
And what exactly is antiquated about public transport? Is it the idea (which is a ludicrous thing to say) or the technology that is in place (here you have a fair point, but that is up to the council and the taxpayer to put pressure on private companies to make them improve their services).
And the metaphor you use in your last pargraph is utterly ridiculous. You pay for the privilige to drive. Simple. Transport should be accesable for everyone, not the select few who can afford to own, tax and insure a motor vehicle (most can't and I'm sure that's a reason why more and more people are borrowing stupid amounts of money and leaving themselves in financial ruin).
I do not have nostalgia towards public transport. In fact, I would say people like me are looking towards the future. We simply cannot sustain the amount of cars we have on the road, never mind more. Motorways, bridges and roads can only be so big, and it's about time more people started being less self centered, analysed their lives and asked themselves, honestly, "Do I really need a car?"
1) I can get in my car and I can drive from A to Z directly.
Or
2) I can walk from A to B where I will have to wait for a Public transport vehicle. When the public transport vehicle arrives I can get on it and it will take me to C, D, E, and F, stopping at each location before dropping me off at interchange G. I then have to wait at interchange G for a connection. Once the connection arrives, it takes me from H through Y, stopping once again at each location to take on other passengers. Then I have one final walk to Z in order to reach my destination.
This is why I can both say and prove that public transportation is an antiquated clumsy useless system that would be better suited if it were slimmed down to an emergency transportation system for the infirm and the needy.
You call my metaphor ridiculous, yet that is exactly what is happening, but only as a one way street with the driver paying for everything.
Drivers are the only ones who actually pay full price to use the roads (48 billion pounds); Selfish cyclists and public transport users are at best using them for free, or at worst actually being subsidised to use them.
It is about time that public transport users were made to pay in full for the use of the roads, just like drivers do.
Road works, companies just being allowed to dig up roads any where and at any time and just leaving them for weeks and months because its more cost effective to get minor fines from the council than do the repair.
Traffic lights, especially in Wigan they change to red when you are approaching them and this is on a main route, why because there is no traffic on the other side, as they are turns that lead to either industrial estates or minor side roads.
This to me is a ploy to increase traffic which intern will justify there congestion charges.
All any Government cares about is battering the hard working person who's already on the bread line.
tax, tax, tax, if it moves or breathes tax it.
I thought we the people where the ones that gave these guys there positions in office to look after our best interests, well I am sorry but its not been like that for a long time.
Vote them out and get people with brains and some real life street cred, not people who live in ivory towers looking down on there minions.
I remember my grand parents who spoke about Great Britan and how proud they were of there Country, ask them now what the think.
We are the laughing stock of the world and we are there to be walked all over by every nation.
Out of 2.24 million in the Greater Manchester urban area (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester), that's 0.0045% of the population.
Those Councillors must REALLY be running scared!
I think you've shown us all very clearly that most people have a much deeper concern about the environment than so called "Road Freedom".
Thank you.
I wish people could get it into their thick heads that these councils don't care about enviromental issues, the only thing they care about is getting more people into their own towns and increasing their own revenue through parking, fines, rent etc.
I could very easily run my car on enviromentally friendly fuel (also called veg oil!) but in doing so I risk having my car siezed unless I pay heavy taxes on it, taking it dearer than diesel, that is how much government and councils really give a toss.
today diesel is £1.12 a litre, road tax is £196 for 12 months, I also pay tax on my insurance, the mot has vat added (as do any repairs, why should we be bent over and screwed up the backside AGAIN.
all the tree huggers on here really need to think, if they start with central manchester how far out will they spread? will their kids be able to afford to get to work in the future or are they all going to work on local farms????!! I may just give up work if I cant afford to go there and claim dole, if enough people do this they won't be able to afford to run the congestion tax. regards to all (except the nazi councillors of wigan)
(a manchester re-united!), not these thinktank polititian bigwigs.
High petrol prices and costly parking charges are enough to deter most people who don’t need to use a car. The same cars will come in to Manchester, simply the owners will be paying another tax for nothing. In any case I find the worst congestion outside Manchester and it’s proposed zones.
As they say this is a trial, and if successful you will be paying it everywhere – so how much will that cost to travel to Manchester and back?
This will all have a huge knock on effect to all prices, and so all will suffer and not just car drivers.