Business and political leaders unite to back trams

May 3 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

Artist's impression of a revamped Lime Street with trams (320)

A GROUP of the region’s leading businessmen and politicians last night came out in support of a renewed bid for Merseytram.

In an open letter to the Liverpool Daily Post, eight signatories – including Peel Holdings’s chairman John Whittaker, New Labour high flyer Stephen Twigg and Dr Peter Brown, chairman of Merseyside Civic Society – threw their weight behind the scheme.

It is two weeks since transport secretary Ruth Kelly said she would welcome a renewed bid for Line One from Liverpool to Kirkby.

Merseytravel says it hopes to submit a new business plan to Government by the end of the year.

The letter says the signatories welcome Mrs Kelly’s “re-expression of her readiness to approve the expenditure” for Line One.

They add: “We believe that the tram network will be enormously beneficial to Merseyside's economy, population and image as a modern metropolitan area fit to meet the movement demands of the 21st century.

“We eagerly support (Merseytravel chief executive) Neil Scales and Merseytravel in their efforts to compile the cost-effective package, and to win the convincing political support of Liverpool City Council, that Ruth Kelly demands to secure her approval.”

A previous bid for a tram collapsed when the Government refused £170m funding for Line One at the last minute, claiming the costs had spiralled.

It was projected to cost £316m when it was scrapped in 2005 and Liverpool and Knowsley councils refused to give an unlimited guarantee to cover further cost increases.

Last night, a spokesperson for Merseytravel said: “We welcome the increasing support and are working on a business plan at the moment.”

One of the letter’s authors, Peter Kilfoyle, MP for Liverpool Walton, said: “The tram would be an environmentally-friendly, cheap public transport as long as it is done properly.”

Mr Kilfoyle said he thinks the shift in the political landscape at the Town Hall will have an impact over how much support the new bid gets from Liverpool City Council.

He added: “The politics have all changed now and I hope everyone’s all sorted.

“There’s a much reduced majority for the ruling Lib-Dem group and they want to be making friends rather than alienating people. In that case, I hope that they would be supportive in a way in which they were not seen as before.”

At the time of Mrs Kelly’s statement, Cllr Warren Bradley, leader of Liverpool Counil, said he welcomed the news and hoped “the Government will enter into constructive dialogue regarding how it will evolve”.

The other four signatories were Dr Charles Roberts, chairman of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Merseyside and Warrington Group, Jack Stopforth, chief executive of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, George Howarth, Labour MP for Knowsley North and Sefton East and Jane Kennedy, Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree.

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