Letters - August 5, 2016

It is currently the single most used transport route on the Fylde coast, and more than any bus route.

In addition, the busiest two tram stops are the Tower and North Pier, which also happen to be the closest to the town centre and the station.

All of this points to extra passengers and profit being brought in by this extension, and while a bus station would be nice, it would not provide any new routes and simply put buses in a building instead of on street.

Blackpool Council is only paying around £4.5 million for the extension, which in terms of other tram network extensions, is an absolute bargain, and may be reduced further if additional funding is available at the time.

Why should we risk losing a huge £16m grant by cancelling the project?

Why should we not be doing something that is clearly working across the country and Europe? Why are some of our residents jumping on the taxi doom and gloom bandwagon?

Get it done, and do it quickly.

Susan Scott

via email

TRANSPORT

Council will ignore public’s protests

I read with interest the recent articles in The Gazette regarding the tram ‘extension’ becoming a step nearer. In the articles, it mentioned people should write in with their views on the line to the North Railway Station.

As we all know, it has been passed by the council, so I wondered what the purpose of the request was and I suspect its a public relations exercise, and this council won’t take a blind bit of notice and will railroad, or should I say tram-road, it through without taking a blind bit of notice to the feelings of the public

Before the tram-fans descend, I am NOT against tramway extensions, in fact I welcome them – its time the all conquering motorist, of which I am one, gave way to a public service which should never have been done away with originally.

What I do question is all this money on 500 yards of tramline going to a railway station which lost its bus service a while ago. Do the council really think people arriving in the station forecourt will go up to the terminus on the site of the Wilko building to find a tram?

Had the line gone out to Layton or to Poulton town centre (including servicing the railway station) then I certainly agree with that. To add to this the trams running to the shopping centres near Asda, the 24-hour Tesco or Morrison’s, via Lytham Road, would indeed be wonderful.

Manchester seems to attract funding for their extensions to the tram service, so why doesn’t Blackpool attract funding in this way? Melbourne in Australia has 28 routes, many are street running, with new trams being added and the motorist has just got to get along with Melbourne’s excellent service!

All the letters of complaint won’t have any effect on this council. I fear it is certainly a case of locking the depot door after the tram has departed. I was told this could be a way of ‘opening the door to further extensions’, but somehow I suspect I will be long gone before any come to fruition.

Bob Milner

via email

TRANSPORT

Come on council, we must think again

I refer to the excellent letter from Marion Gourlay in The Gazette dated July 28.

I hope Simon Blackburn, leader of the council, takes the time to it.

It is a shame that the council does not hold a referendum on the tram link. If the council had the guts to have one, I am quite confident there would be a resounding NO to tram link being built. This is a terrible waste of money.

Come on Blackpool Council think again. I believe that the majority of Blackpool residents are not happy.

Charlie Telfer

via email

TRANSPORT

You can’t borrow your way to success

We, the people of this town need to put a stop to this tramline which is costing a lot of money, and is not going to make any difference to the income of the council.

In fact, it is going to take more money away from essential services, as do all the loans we have produced over the last six years.

Every loan requires an interest payment , every interest payment takes more money, and takes away funds that could be better spent on the town’s services.

You cannot borrow yourself out of trouble, you only put yourself deeper in debt.

In six years , I have seen this council run Blackpool into huge debts which are going to take years to pay back. We must stop borrowing now, to get some common sense into our finances.

Robert Ronson

via email

TRANSPORT

If people didn’t want it, they would say

Your correspondents who claim to be speaking for “the people of Blackpool”on the tramway don’t speak for me.

People have complained, but far more people haven’t. If “the people of Blackpool” people were bothered by the scheme, there would be much more of an outcry. The new tramway will take trippers to the prom, with direct access to attractions. Plus, there will be the advantage that they will have saved on taxi fares.

Toni Dagnall

Peter Street

Blackpool