C-charge cut for minimum wage earners

OLDHAM workers on the minimum wage will get a 20 per cent discount on rush-hour bus, train, and tram fares if Greater Manchester votes yes to congestion charging in December.

And in a huge concession to the transport industry, lorries will be charged nothing for the first year while the effects of the scheme are studied by town hall officials together with the Road Haulage Association.

There will however, be no exemption or discount for “public service vehicles” like dustbin wagons to encourage councils to schedule their runs to avoid the rush hour and set an example.

Those who drive to and from work and earn the minimum wage of £5.73 an hour will also get a 20 per cent discount on the congestion charge after demands during the public consultation over the last few months. The discounts would last for at least two years.

The cost to drivers who cross the inner and outer charging rings several times in the same day is also to come down dramatically from the original proposals.

Council leaders — who meet Friday to approve final arrangements for the referendum — will be asked to make several changes to original proposals including scrapping a plan to limit the maximum daily charge to the £10.

Instead, officials now want to charge them only for crossing each boundary once in each period — £5 a day at the most at today’s prices.

Pollsters Ipsos Mori have been asking 500 adults and 1,000 business leaders in all 10 districts for their opinions. There were also 85,000 responses from 1.2 million information packs delivered to households businesses.

It has already been decided that people on the way to medical appointments, blue badge holders, motorcycles, taxis and private hire cars, emergency vehicle, registered recovery vehicles, buses, scheduled coaches and community transport services will not pay.

The leaders are also expected to confirm the details of both the outer and inner charging rings.

The outer boundary will follow the M60 in Oldham, except that the area around Semple Way, Hollinwood Station, and Kaskenmoor School will fall beyond the outer ring for charging.