Last Wednesday evening saw the first meeting of the sub committee established by the environment select committee to look at the effect of the proposed Manchester Congestion Charge on the High Peak.
Only myself and New Mills Lib Dem Ray Atkins were in attendance along with a number of officers including Spencer Cooke from the soon to disappear and then reappear as something slightly different (due to a change of funding body) Hope Valley and High Peak Transport Partnership.
We agreed the terms of reference with slight amendments to include the impact of the proposed charge on other policies of the council and bodies the council is involved with such as the SPITS strategy (South Pennine Integrated Transport Strategy) and in particular what effect there will be on parking around local rail stations should there be increased usage following the implementation of the charge.
In terms of how the committee will work I was elected chair and we agreed that when we had sufficient details to consult upon we would (as well as other methods) include opportunities to take views from interested members of the public and other groups.
We did however note that with the forthcoming elections in the Greater Manchester area, although officers have a meeting with various officials from Greater Manchester in early April we probably won’t have any further / more concrete information on the congestion charge to consider until after the local election period towards the middle of June, however if you have any views on what you’ve heard so far about the proposals please let me know.
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