Keir Starmer replacement contender spent over £100m on failed car scheme
One of the leading candidates to replace Sir Keir Starmer in Downing Street once spent over £100million on a failed car project.
Keir Starmer’s replacement candidate spent over £100million on a motoring scheme, only for the plan to be ditched at the last minute. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has emerged as a serious contender to take over the Labour leadership from Sir Keir Starmer, with the Prime Minister's future hanging by a thread.
But, Andy Burnham oversaw plans that spent £104million on proposals for Manchester’s petrol and diesel Clean Air Zone scheme, before the proposals were later axed. A report found that around £36.6m was spent on putting together and implementing the Clean Air Zone.
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Meanwhile, £27million was spent on financial support which included grants for drivers to upgrade their vehicles to electric models. A staggering 462 Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras had been installed ahead of the Clean Air Zone scheme, costing £375,000 a month.
Meanwhile, about £3million has been spent on a whopping 1,300 signs to warn drivers about the Clean Air Zone. If the scheme had gone ahead, certain vehicles would be paying as much as £60 to travel across parts of Greater Manchester.
However, the Clean Air Zone project was eventually ditched by the council in 2022, with fears the money spent has been lost. Despite this, Mr Burnham claimed that the council had not wasted the money, with some of the cash already invested into the city.
He told the BBC: “It’s helped us get to the point where we’ve cleaned up the air because some of that money was used to enable people to change their vehicles.
“Some of that money was used to give us some of the new buses…Some of the money has gone into cameras. That camera network now gives Greater Manchester the best ANPR infrastructure in the country.”
The mayor had stressed that plans were in place to ensure Manchester Police get access to ANPR cameras put into place for the Clean Air Zone scheme.
He also said that signs were being repurposed to advertise Park and Ride schemes and for other “local uses”.
