Can we afford the big 'C'? Newcastle is not London, neither is it Durham. If the city's council is to proceed with plans it is exploring for congestion charging, it should not base its thinking on the example set by either. London, where charging has been a qualified success, is a huge city with an overwhelming pressure of vehicles weighing down upon it. It also has a booming economy able easily to shrug off the extra expense to motorists, and an extensive (if creaking) public transport network attracting very large sums of state money to maintain and improve it. Durham applies a congestion charge successfully to a single cobbled cul-de-sac up to the cathedral - but then, so what? Our concern over congestion charging in Newcastle is two-fold. First, that our fragile regional economy needs all the help it can get, not the loading of extra expense on business. Second, such a charge could drive economic activity away from the city centre into suburbs and business parks. If the aim of a charge is to convert motorists into public transport users the latter would have the opposite effect: Suburban shopping centres and business parks are harder to get to by bus or train. Car use in the region as a whole would go up, not down. The region's biggest bottlenecks are, at present to be found not in Newcastle but on the Western Bypass through Gateshead and at the mouths of the Tyne Tunnel. This is traffic already choosing to go round and not through the city. And if motorists are to be charged to enter the city, then they shall be entitled to ask in return how public transport is to be improved to provide them with an alternative. The Metro system serves only some communities, while Nexus' Orpheus plan for tram routes in other parts of Tyne and Wear remains stuck in a siding, with little chance of attracting Government funding. That is not the fault of the city council, but it is a fact it must take into consideration. As for trains - at rush hour the juddering carriages provided by Northern Trains are often more crowded than roads. Newcastle, in short, does not face a traffic crisis that merits the rapid imposition of congestion charging. Like many cities it is experiencing a steady rise in car use which is only likely to get worse, and which requires planning to deal with. That planning should take the form of opening comprehensive through bus lanes (not the stop-start variety that increase jams) and making the case for better train and tram networks. Offer the carrot of better public transport first, not the stick of road charges we can ill afford. Viz and the Bard It was always said that while Shakespeare wrote for the nobility ranged around the gallery of his Globe Theatre he made sure the `common folk' in the pit were kept entertained. And he knew the value of comedy basics: guaranteeing cheap laughs from characters called Bottom and Belch to keep the mood light. Young scholars still giggle, so it must have worked. The Royal Shakespeare Company should be congratulated then, on pricking the pomposity that sometimes surrounds the bard, and pointing out how he led the way for Johnny Fartpants. It should also do wonders for the literary credentials of Viz: Clever (and funny) enough to be read by common folk and smartypants alike. To find out more on both of these stories, subscribe to TheJournal e:edition. Click here. | 
