THE Government's transport plans are a necessary and long overdue attempt to tackle Britain's crowded roads, say the borough's MPs.

But while people agree that something must be done, they will take a lot of convincing to leave their cars at home.

David Chaytor, MP for Bury North, said: "This is a strategy of crucial importance which at long last starts to get to grips with the growing problem of traffic congestion.

"It shows the way forward for the rebirth of public transport and I think it contains the right balance between carrots and sticks to shift the emphasis away from the current dominance of the private car."

Mr Chaytor added: "The scale of the problem is so huge. It's simply not possible for all of us to use our cars for every single journey.

"Locally, the paper is good news for the Metrolink and its proposals for a new station at Buckley Wells to link up with the East Lancs Railway."

Mr Chaytor said he was all in favour of charging for company car parking spaces and town centre tolls in larger towns and cities like Manchester. He wanted the Government to go further and impose car parking charges in out-of-town shopping superstores.

"I think most people have seen the light, but they won't stop using their cars unless there's an equally comfortable alternative on offer," he said. "And people need to see that public transport is being improved before further restrictions on car usage are imposed."

Mr Chaytor said Britain was 20 years behind most of Europe in terms of public transport.

But he appreciated the difficulties in the years ahead in forcing through proposals which will probably attract hostility.

"To move from public understanding of the problem to general acceptance of the solutions is the difficult job for any Government."

Ivan Lewis, MP for Bury South, said: "Our new policies will mean better, more reliable and more frequent bus services and tougher penalties against bus and train operators who fall short of the agreed performance standards.

"Motorists will have a real alternative of good quality public transport."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.