Just 3 weeks from a TIF descision?

Greater Manchester's bid for £3bn of money to improve public transport and introduce peak-time congestion charging seems to have been up in the air forever.  However, it looks like we won't have to wait much longer to find out that mixture of a grant and a loan is coming our way or not.  The Manchester Evening News reports today that a decision could be announced as soon as the 15th of May.

The West Midlands recently pulled out of the running for the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) money, leaving just Cambridge and Greater Manchester as hopefuls.  Some people have seen the decision to delay the announcement of the winner of the controversial 'prize' of congestion charging as a conspiracy to keep the councilors responsible for Manchester's bid safe in next week's council elections.  Whether that's true or not, if the Department for Transport does give Greater Manchester the go-ahead in the next few weeks it still may not be a smooth ride for the plans.

Stockport, Trafford and Bury councils have rejected the current proposals, while Bolton plans to give its residents a referendum on whether to accept them.  If Bolton rejects the plans, that would leave just six of Greater Manchester's councils in favour, one less than required for the scheme to go ahead under the rules agreed by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA).

So, there's a long way to go yet but at least it looks like we'll be one step closer to an end to all this uncertainty by the middle of May.