Information obtained by Oldham’s Liberal Democrats has revealed that Transport for Greater Manchester have spent more than £3 million on signage for Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s Clean Air Zone.
Oldham’s Liberal Democrat Leader, councillor Howard Sykes issued Burnham’s Mayoral office with a Freedom of Information request which asked how much money had been spent on CAZ signs to date. The £3.04 million sum was paid to the public works contractor McCann Ltd for the CAZ signs that are spread across Greater Manchester. A further £120,000 was paid to McCann for the ‘under review stickers’ that were used after the original Clean Air Zone was paused.
Councillor Sykes said, “It is ridiculous that such a large sum of money has already been spent on signage when we still don’t know the final boundaries if any of the Clean Air Zone and what the charge if any might be. Labour has questions to answer over this wasteful spending.”
The revelations come as Clean Air Zone plans for Greater Manchester have reached a stalemate. Mayor Burnham has been forced to climb down from his original plans and the Government is considering whether it will impose a charging zone on the city region.
Councillor Sykes said, “We still don’t know the final details of the Clean Air Zone and it’s possible the final plans might limit the zone to Manchester City Centre. What would we then do with millions of pounds worth of unnecessary signs?”
NOTES
Liberal Democrat Freedom of Information Request
Sent by Councillor Howard Sykes MBE
I am writing to request information relating to road signage used across Greater Manchester in connection with the Mayor’s ‘Clean Air Zone’ proposals.
Please can you provide information detailing the following:
- The total costs incurred for the implementation of road signs advertising the original Clean Air Zone start date – 30th May 2022
- The total costs incurred in correcting these original signs with the message ‘Under Review’
- A breakdown of these two costs for each local authority area in Greater Manchester
Transport for Greater Manchester Response
Sent by TfGM 05/07/22
In July 2021, TfGM, acting on behalf of the ten local authorities of Greater Manchester (GM), contracted with McCann Ltd for the installation, maintenance and decommissioning of the circa 2200 signs required for a GM wide category C charging Clean Air Zone across 18 local authorities.
These included the ten GM authorities and 8 the neighbouring authorities of Calderdale, Kirklees, Derbyshire, Cheshire East, Warrington, St Helens, Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen. The value of the contract is £3.04m. The nature of the contract with McCann was costed on the basis of a lump sum fixed price for the installation of all the required signs across the 18 authorities and as such it is not possible to provide a breakdown of the costs on a per local authority basis.
In February 2022, after the review of Greater Manchester’s Clean Air Plan was announced, a further order was awarded to McCann for £120k to manufacture the 1309 “Under Review” sticker and apply the stickers to the signs in Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Calderdale, Kirklees, Derbyshire, Cheshire East, Warrington, St Helens, Lancashire, and Blackburn with Darwen.
The following local authorities applied the stickers to the signs in their own jurisdiction at the costs identified below:
- Bolton Council £11.5k
- Bury Council £6.9k
- Salford City Council £14.2k
- Stockport MBC £17k
- Tameside MBC £3.5k
- Trafford Council £9.3k
- Wigan Council £6.9k