Who is driving plans for the congestion charge?

Mike Henry of Bristol property consultancy King Sturge came out this week in favour of the congestion charge for the city centre.

An independent, objective view from a leading city businessman? Well, perhaps.

But King Sturge is also the marketing consultant for the South West Regional Development Agency - SWRDA, set up in 1999 by John Prescott as a way of boosting the economic productivity of the region.

Lots of people have criticised it, saying that an annual budget of £180 million for an unelected Government quango it is a waste of taxpayers money.

We have already kissed goodbye to something like £15 million spent on preparing the Bristol Arena site for - much to the chagrin of the city's people - a failed project.

But I digress. What is the genuine significance of the fact that Mike Henry works for SWRDA?

Well, it is hard not to suspect that there was some kind of agency agenda behind the press release we received from King Sturge earlier this week.

While SWRDA has no executive power in the region's transport policy, it's views are obviously taken seriously.

And while Mr Henry's views may be his own, we at least know that there are major players backing the congestion charge proposal.

The public will eventually be asked for their views on congestion charging but you can rest assured that if the big cheeses want this to happen, then happen it will.

Perhaps what this all teaches us is that, while we have it suggested to us that transport improvements are for the genuine public good, often these decisions are economically driven.

For example, air quality is something often cited as a reason behind improving congestion in the city centre.

Is the motivation for this the health of Bristol's people, or the fact that the Government imposes heavy fines on cities which do not hit air quality targets?

And while the two may go hand-in-hand, it makes you wonder which side of the fence the decision makers tend to fall if there is ever a clash of public and economic interest.

Whether this is a bad thing or not barely matters because, as we all know, it is money which makes the world go round.

And as we are all finding during the current economic struggle, financial prosperity is something which is very easily taken for granted.