Manchester vote is death-knell for road pricing, say papers

There was a strong consensus in the national media that the overwhelming ‘No’ vote in Greater Manchester’s referendum will kill off road pricing schemes elsewhere. Rik Thomas reports

By Rik Thomas

06 January 2009

The Manchester Evening News on 12 December

The overwhelming ‘No’ vote in the Greater Manchester referendum on a Transport Innovation Fund bid was almost universally interpreted by the national media as the final nail in the coffin of road pricing in the UK, at least for the foreseeable future.

“Road pricing, the Government’s favoured policy for dealing with congestion, has been overwhelmingly rejected in a referendum in Manchester,” The Times said on 12 December. “There is now little chance of any...