Andy Burnham could be heading for 10 Downing Street, and drivers should be worried, writes car expert Luke Chillingsworth.
OPINION
Andy Burnham has already made one massive motoring error. (Image: Getty)
Andy Burnham has already made one huge motoring mistake – although he’d deny it – and I’d argue drivers should be worried about him entering Downing Street. The presumed Prime Minister has already given us a hint of his transport policies while he was Mayor of Manchester, scrapping a planned Clean Air Zone project in 2022.
He argued that charging drivers on the road was “not morally defensible” as the plan was ditched. It all sounds wonderful. A great response and a complete opposite approach to Sadiq Khan‘s London ULEZ plan.
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The Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone scheme was axed before it was implemented (Image: Getty)
Burnham’s move ensured that extra fees didn’t hit motorists with extortionate charges just to get behind the wheel. A top political strategy. However, reports have previously indicated that a whopping £104 million had been spent on the scheme. How much? Yes really. Over £100 million.
Much of the cash was spent on infrastructure, with new cameras and road signs installed across the region ahead of the implementation of a new charging zone. Burnham stressed that he would “dispute completely” any claims that the cash had been wasted, noting that the funding was used to support infrastructure upgrades. He pointed out that the ANPR technology had been used by police to “solve serious crimes”.
However, this doesn’t paint the whole picture. A breakdown of the costs shows that as much as £27 million was spent on financial support, including grants to help drivers upgrade to EVs
That’s £27 million in grant funding to ensure locals could meet a Clean Air Zone target that was never actually implemented. That sounds like a bit of a waste to me. So do all the ‘Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone’ signs that were binned after the decision was made; you can’t repurpose those.
A Clean Air for Greater Manchester spokesperson previously stressed that all of the expenditure was funded by the Central Government. So does that mean the money was wasted, but it doesn’t really matter because it wasn’t Manchester’s money to waste? That argument won’t work if there is another similar situation at the top table in a Burnham administration.
In Manchester, Burnham made it clear that he doesn’t believe in charging drivers daily fees on the road. So what happens to the upcoming pay-per-mile EV fees?
Track history shows Burnham may want to axe it, but how is that going to work when Ed Miliband is the Chancellor who wants to push an electric car transition?
When he has his feet under the table, Burnham needs to make decisions fast; history will repeat itself, and millions of pounds of waste will seep out the back door.