Rise in parking fees not the way to cut pollution – Burnham
MAYOR URGES PEOPLE TO FOLLOW HIS LEAD AND LEAVE CAR AT HOME ONCE A WEEK
ANDY Burnham says he can’t sanction a rise in parking fees to promote clean air – but has vowed to ‘lead by example’ and use public transport himself.
The Greater Manchester mayor was speaking during the UK’s first Clean Air Day in a bid to raise awareness of air pollution as one of the most important challenges facing the region.
Air pollution contributes to as many as 2,000 premature deaths every year in Greater Manchester. As such, Mr Burnham has joined forces with Transport for Greater Manchester to call on people to play their part in protecting and improving the environment.
The mayor has vowed to leave his car at home at least once a week and use public transport.
“I’m not in any way pointing the finger at the public, I’m pointing the finger at myself first,” he said.
“Because of how difficult it is for me to access public transport, I’m sympathetic to other people who have no real alternative but to use their car. “But I do want to lead by example in this role.”
Some areas of the region have illegal levels of carbon emission, something the mayor hopes to tackle urgently. But he insisted ‘punishing’ the public by raising parking charges was not the way forward.
“Some people in Greater Manchester have no real alternative but to use their car and it’s not fair to hit them with a charge when they can’t easily switch to another mode of transport,” he said.
“My focus is on improving other modes of transport.”
As well as the road, rail and bus infrastructures, Mr Burnham also hopes to encourage cycling across the region and hinted at developing a separate cycling infrastructure away from the roads.
He said Greater Manchester’s cycling culture is ‘someway behind’ other European cities but insisted that bike-sharing schemes such as MoBike, set to launch this month, will improve things greatly.
He added: “If it’s one isolated cyclist on the road battling all the cars then it’s still hard. But once you get safety in numbers, once you get greater numbers on the street, then the whole system starts to swing in favour of cycling.
“We’ve not hit that tipping point yet, we’re some way from it, but the arrival of the MoBikes is a big moment in making Greater Manchester the cycling city we really want it to be.”