Delay for congestion charge consultation

Councillors have moved to delay consultation on York's third local transport plan from 2012 to 2017, seen as crucial to the economic future of the city, until after the general election.

Critics claim there will now be less time to develop the plan and say Labour has put it on hold due to the unpopularity of the congestion charging scheme currently out for public consultation.

Coun Steve Galloway, Liberal Democrat executive member for city strategy, said: "This delay will inevitably curtail the available time for consultation.

"The current consultation on the congestion charging proposals is too complex and doesn't give people a clear way to reject the proposals.

"Residents want to be able to have their say on these controversial plans but Labour just keep trying to avoid discussion on the subject."

But Coun David Scott, leader of the York Labour Group, said there was unanimous cross-party support to put the plans on hold and described the criticism as "complete nonsense".

He said: "We wanted to delay the questionnaires being sent out until after the election to avoid confusion as there will be lots of information coming through people's letter boxes in the next two months."

Consultation on the plan, which sets out the aims for improving transport and travel in York while tackling major issues such as climate change and supporting economic growth, was due to go ahead in April.

Efforts to tackle traffic tailbacks in York are now being intensified following an estimate that the number of vehicles on York's roads could increase by as much as 28 per cent by 2021.

Last month members of York Council's cross-party traffic congestion scrutiny committee sent out questionnaires to the city's 90,000 households to find out what people think about introducing a congestion charge in the city.