Under the proposals for Greater Manchester, a series of improvements would be made to 40 rail stations, additional metrolink tram lines built, rapid bus services introduced on key commuter corridors, eight new state-of-the-art transport interchanges created and park and ride facilities would double.

Cllr Stewart Young, reporting back to fellow members of Chapel-en-le-Frith Parish Council after attending a consultation meeting, said: "It doesn't involve extra trains and linking buses up. It is brilliant in the M60 ring road area to make it more like London where everything is linked up – but here there will be no difference."

Funding for the £3 billion investment will include £1.5 billion from central Government and a £1.2 billion loan to be repaid by the peak-time congestion charges.

Council Chairman Guy Martin said: "In the long term anyone driving in to Manchester will be subsidising all the improvements in the centre – better trains, better buses and taxis – and outside we are the poor relations."

He said when he had asked about what they were doing about stations on the Buxton line, "I go they impression they were thinking: where is Chapel?"

At the moment the nearest station which will see improvement is Hazel Grove with enhanced park and ride facilities planned, although suggestions were made at the consultation meeting for improved park and ride facilities in New Mills.

Councillor Sara Armstrong said there was a paragraph in the documentation about the proposals which said it all: "On arrival, people from Derbyshire will find a modern transport system once they get to Manchester which will make travelling in and around Greater Manchester far easier for commuters and visitors," she quoted.

Speaking to the Advertiser, Cllr Young said: "It is bad enough now. People drive and park at Disley. This will not get any traffic off our roads. If anything it will make it worse."

He said a series of issues had been highlighted including High Peak residents who attend hospital appointments, and taxi drivers and volunteer drivers who take patients to appointments, having to pay the charge.

"It was asked if they were going to get any dispensation to go into Manchester but they said they hadn't thought about that," he said.
Comments on the proposals need to be submitted by tomorrow, Friday 10.

A decision is expected later in the year when residents in Greater Manchester will vote on the proposals which, if approved, would see congestion charging introduced in 2013.