Well – what with the expenses scandal and the crap state of the economy people have voted against the government in droves and Notts has gone back to being a Tory county.
Now this might be bad news for the tram extension that was due to come our way by 2013 as the Tories have been vocal in their opposition to the extension, but there was a ray of hope in something written by Steve Carr (Lib Dem councillor for Beeston North) in one of his election leaflets. I haven’t got the leaflet to hand (but I will check and update this post later), but basically while in public the Tories are saying “No” to the tram, in private they’re saying it can’t be stopped now.
Well, I hope it can’t. With central government agreeing to the funding – they’ve granted the Transport and Works Act Order (TWAO) I think it’s reached the point of no return.
Watch this space.
Update (7th June): I’ve now found the leaflet and this is what Steve Carr wrote:
“It is highly unlikely that the Conservative threat would actually halt Phase 2, but might lead to cost savings, for example not including some additional tram stops. Just how the Tories think this would help Beeston is hard to understand. We will still have the tram but fewer places to get on it!”
This, to my mind would be the worst possible outcome and would lead to fewer people using the tram and then the Tories being able to claim it wasn’t a success. Steve then goes on to quote Brian Taylor (another Lib Dem):
“I understand that at the final County Council meeting, Conservative councillors were falling over themselves to point out they were not anti-tram. … We have to assume that that their threat to withdraw funding is a political gimmick – a dangerous one as it is putting the planned development of the [Beeston] town centre at serious risk.”
We will have to see how things pan out for the tram over the next few months and I’ll only believe it’s going to happen when the first road gets dug up.
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