Andy Burnham’s will be a nightmare for taxpayers – | Tech News

Andy Burnham has already made one big motoring mistake – though he’d deny it – and I’d argue drivers ought to be anxious about him coming into Downing Street. The presumed Prime Minister has already given us a trace of his transport insurance policies whereas he was Mayor of Manchester, scrapping a deliberate Clean Air Zone project in 2022.

He argued that charging drivers on the highway was “not morally defensible” because the plan was ditched. It all sounds great. A great response and a exact opposite method to Sadiq Khan‘s London ULEZ plan.

Burnham’s transfer ensured that further charges didn’t hit motorists with extortionate costs simply to get behind the wheel. A high political strategy. However, stories have beforehand indicated that a whopping £104 million had been spent on the scheme. How a lot? Yes actually. Over £100 million.

Much of the money was spent on infrastructure, with new cameras and highway indicators put in throughout the area forward of the implementation of a new charging zone. Burnham careworn that he would “dispute completely” any claims that the money had been wasted, noting that the funding was used to help infrastructure upgrades. He identified that the ANPR technology had been utilized by police to “solve serious crimes”.

However, this doesn’t paint the whole picture. A breakdown of the costs shows that as much as £27 million was spent on financial support, including grants to help drivers upgrade to EVs

That’s £27 million in grant funding to ensure locals could meet a Clean Air Zone target that was never actually implemented. That sounds like a bit of a waste to me. So do all the ‘Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone’ signs that were binned after the decision was made; you can’t repurpose those.

A Clean Air for Greater Manchester spokesperson previously stressed that all of the expenditure was funded by the Central Government. So does that mean the money was wasted, but it doesn’t really matter because it wasn’t Manchester’s money to waste? That argument won’t work if there is another similar situation at the top table in a Burnham administration.

In Manchester, Burnham made it clear that he doesn’t believe in charging drivers daily fees on the road. So what happens to the upcoming pay-per-mile EV fees?

Track historical past reveals Burnham might need to axe it, however how is that going to work when Ed Miliband is the Chancellor who desires to push an electric car transition?

When he has his toes below the desk, Burnham must make selections fast; historical past will repeat itself, and hundreds of thousands of kilos of waste will seep out the back door.