Council unanimously rejects congestion charge

City councillors in Peterborough have voted down road user charging schemes

Councillors from all political parties have vowed to oppose the introduction of a congestion charge in Peterborough.

The motion to reject road charging was put forward by Labour councillor Amjad Iqbal at a full council meeting and was agreed unanimously.

Previously, the Conservative group had not ruled out a congestion charge plan for Peterborough, but Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Peterborough First insisted it would not be brought in under their leaderships.

The Greens – the smallest party on the council – said they believed the charge was not currently right for the city, especially in the absence of better public transport options.

The issue has become a longstanding debate in Peterborough and in Cambridge, where plans for a £5 congestion charge were thrown out after a public consultation.

In July, Conservative councillor Ishfaq Hussain unsuccessfully put a motion forward in Peterborough. It was rejected by most of the opposition councillors who said "no-one had actually proposed congestion charging" in the city.

'Road maintenance'

At the more recent meeting, Conservative councillor Rylan Ray asked for clarification on whether Cllr Iqbal's motion could even be debated because of council rules that state very similar motions can't be brought within six months of each other. 

He was advised by a legal officer that the motions were considered to be suitably different enough that it was acceptable. 

This was also Labour's rationale behind bringing and supporting the motion on 6 December, which only mentioned congestion charging, as opposed to other measures such as low emission zones cited in councillor Iqbal's motion.

It also stresses the need for improved road maintenance, stating that the council resolved to "campaign for the restoration of local highways maintenance budgets to improve their condition in Peterborough, including the leader of the council lobbying the government for fairer funding for road maintenance".