Manchester City Council hung out to dry yet again by the government
October 15, 2007Once more the city council seems to have been let down by the government. If it was a different political colour, the there ideological differences between the two this would be more understandable, however both being Labour I’ll repeat again what I’ve said a number of times – New Labour has abandoned the North. Labour has now done a U turn over road pricing – central to Manchester’s TIFF bid, but an element rejected by other cities such as Birmingham which is seeking over £7 billion to our £3 billion. See article below:
Manchester city council seems so keen to jump on any lifeline thrown to it by the government, and then the rug seems to be pulled from under its feet. Can we expect this too with the announcement of £2billion for rail in Manchester (which in itself as an announcement makes a mockery of Labour’s, and Sir Richard Leese’s, statement that the congestion charge was the ONLY way to get any investment in Manchester.
Metrolink
Introduced and money allocated by the last Conservative government, allocating £500 million. Labour withheld the remainder of the allocation once it gained power. New money from Labour £0.00.
National Football Stadium
Again let down by the government. In my opinion there could not be a better place for a national football stadium than Manchester, the heart of the sport in our country with our two world-class teams. Manchester frozen out of an unfair bidding process, a flaw that has cost the tax-payer millions for the crazy scheme at Wembley.
World Athletic Championship
When London failed to come up with the goods in terms of a stadium, damaging national credibility, the idiot sports Minister at the time tried to blame Manchester for not being able to use the City of Manchester stadium for athletics, even though a key factor for Manchester was to find a sustainable use for the stadium (which it did in giving it to Sir Howard’s football team) as the government had made it clear it would not assist in supporting an athletics stadium there.
The Super Casino
Bidding and winning the super casino was a triumph claimed by the city council, beating Blackpool and London for the prize, only to have the prize taken away by Gordon Brown. Many dubious that it was the best way to regenerate that run-down part of Manchester anyway would still surely be angry that so much money had been spent on the bid that was then proved to be worthless.
Record amount spent on TIFF/Congestion Charge bid
Again a great deal of money spent on the bid (apparently about 3 times the amount Birmingham will spend) which is a cost to council-tax payers in Manchester, just as the government seems to be abandoning the concept. The idea of congestion charging for Manchester has been opposed by the Conservatives all along. I have continually campaigned on it ever since the council backed the idea. William Hague said it was ‘wrong for Manchester’ during his visit here at the weekend. Its funny, that’s what Sir Richard Leese used to say before the government insisted he support it……
