Oldham Lib-Dems slam £3m spent on CAZ signs as 'ridiculous'

Cllr Howard Sykes issued Andy Burnham’s Mayoral office with a Freedom of Information request which asked how much money had been spent on CAZ signs to date

Information obtained by Oldham’s Liberal Democrats has revealed that Transport for Greater Manchester have spent more than £3 million on signage for Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s Clean Air Zone. 

Oldham’s Liberal Democrat Leader, Councillor Howard Sykes, issued Mr Burnham’s Mayoral office with a Freedom of Information request which asked how much money had been spent on CAZ signs to date. 

The £3.04 million sum was paid to the public works contractor McCann Ltd for the CAZ signs that are spread across Greater Manchester's 10 local authorities and eight neighbouring authorities - Calderdale, Kirklees, Derbyshire, Cheshire East, Warrington, St Helens, Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen. 

A further £120,000 was paid to McCann for the ‘under review stickers’ that were used after the original Clean Air Zone was paused.   

Councillor Sykes said: “It is ridiculous that such a large sum of money has already been spent on signage when we still don’t know the final boundaries if any of the Clean Air Zone and what the charge if any might be. 

"Labour has questions to answer over this wasteful spending.” 

The results come as Clean Air Zone plans for Greater Manchester have reached a stalemate. 

The Government is now considering whether it will impose a charging zone on the city region.

Councillor Sykes said: “We still don’t know the final details of the Clean Air Zone and it’s possible the final plans might limit the zone to Manchester city centre. 

"What would we then do with millions of pounds worth of unnecessary signs?”

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