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Consultation on Toll Tax a 'sham' - MP

Annette Lord
13/ 7/2007

PUBLIC consultation over toll tax plans for Manchester have been branded a "sham" after fake residents were used on an information leaflet posing as real locals.

The GMPTA leaflet - sent to 2.5m homes across Greater Manchester - features jobless Neil from Beswick alongside Terry from Rochdale, mum-of-two Rachel from Trafford and Ann from Ashton-under-Lyne.

But instead of being what they seemed, the four 'real' people were actually made up by transport officials and their photographs are really models who live hundreds of miles away in the US.

The revelation has prompted a backlash from opponents of the congestion charge plan, with Blackley MP Graham Stringer saying: "At best the public consultation is deeply flawed, at worst it's a sham.

"It is a very distorted view of a tax on central Manchester and I'm not surprised they have had to invent people. The vast majority of people I've spoken to are against it.

"It is not necessarily my view, but most people I talk to say that if the council wants to go ahead with it there should be a referendum. But I don't think they will because the outcome would be 'no'."

The decision to create fake case studies was taken by a group of 12 officials involved in preparing Greater Manchester's bid to the government's Transport Innovation Fund. The GMPTA website originally claimed the four examples were based on 'real people' but now this has been changed to say they are fictional case studies based on accurate travel plans under current proposals.

Manchester Against Road Tolls spokesman Sean Corker said: "This encapsulates what the GMPTA proposals are all about - an abuse of our trust. They are asking us to trust them with what they are doing and this just shows that we can't.

"Until Saturday it looked like they were real people living in Manchester who would be affected by the congestion charge. I think everybody knows what the effect will be by looking at what the congestion charge has done in London.

"There is a shortage of teachers, nurses and firemen who can afford to work inside the congestion charging zone. All the GMPTA had to do was interview real Londoners to find out what it's going to do to Manchester's economy."

But the practice has been defended by transport officials, who said the leaflet was intended to give an idea of the charges people may face.

Roger Jones, chairman of the GMPTA, said it had been put together "very quickly" to make sure everyone had a chance to learn the facts about a congestion charge.

"With more time, maybe it would have been better to interview proper families, but I don't mind if they are actors and actresses as long as the information is correct.

"I was one of the first to say a leaflet should go out to every house in Greater Manchester and I am really proud of what we have done."

A spokeswoman for the Transport Innovation Fund bid said: "The case studies are examples of what will be real experiences for people if the £3bn of transport improvements and the congestion charge are introduced.

"The studies have been worked out based on real journeys taken by real people - taking children to school, going to football matches or shopping, visiting hospitals, working in peak times and delivering goods around Greater Manchester."

Asked why the case studies were invented rather than based on interviews with real people, a GMPTA spokeswoman said: "They were worked out very carefully using all the details available.

"It is impossible to interview anybody about the situation in 2012. Nobody is paying it at the moment and it is impossible to interview anybody about that."