Residents' fear of tram extension

Line one carries around 10 million passengers each year

Officials in Nottingham are celebrating government approval for a scheme worth more than £400m to extend the city's tram lines - but not everyone is happy with the news.

Residents of Neville Sadler Court in suburban Beeston - where 19 out of 48 flats will have to be demolished - say the tram will ruin their community.

They say the disturbance of building work and the noise of the tram will be a nightmare.

Pauline Simpson, who would be affected by the changes, said: "I've only been here nine weeks and it's such a happy place.

"I would hate it to be disturbed. I've come here because I need somewhere to live the rest of my life and I don't want to move."

It's good news for the elderly and the disabled because it brings the Queen's Medical Centre to their doorstep Steve Barber, of the Bacit campaign group

The comments are echoed by members of the Beeston and Chilwell Business and Residents Association who say the new route would deprive their neighbourhood of open space and take trade away from the area.

However, some parts of the community have dismissed these viewpoints as scaremongering.

Steve Barber said he was inspired to set up his own pro-tram community group Bacit - Beeston and Chilwell for Integrated Transport - to reset the balance.

"It's really good news for Beeston. It's good news for the elderly and the disabled because it brings the Queen's Medical Centre to their doorstep.

"And with around five million passengers coming along the tram route, commuters will stop on their way home and they will spend money."

Broxtowe MP Nick Palmer will be putting his constituents' objections forward at a public inquiry but is not against the two new lines.

"I've always said I'm in favour of the extension of the network. I've got some arguments about the routes in Beeston and Chilwell but I think it would be crazy if the most successful public transport development in Britain since the London tube were to be limited to one line.

"I believe in 20 years' time we're going to see a network covering most of greater Nottingham.

"What we've got here is an enormously successful project which is helpful to people to give them a positive alternative to driving into Nottingham, increasing local pollution, blocking up the roads and frustrating everybody."

NEW TRACKS Green light for extra trams

However, people living near the planned Wilford and Clifton route say the tram would ruin nearby beauty spots and be more harmful to the environment than current means of transport.

Gordon Court, from the Environment NOT Trams campaign group, said the money would be better invested in new fuel cell hydrogen powered buses:

"It has been demonstrated in a study by Melbourne University that their trams and trams in general are actually less environmentally friendly than buses and cars.

"The trams have to run on electricity, which is produced by power stations which kick out a load of pollutants and if you compare the number of passenger miles done in a tram to those by other means of transport and the amount of pollution produced, those other means of transport are more environmentally friendly."

Public inquiry

Construction of the new lines is set to start in 2010 with trams running by 2013.

The current one-line service, run by Nottingham Express Transit (NET), was judged the best in the UK by The Institution of Civil Engineers, earlier this month.

The Chilwell and Beeston route will go from the railway station to the south west of the city.

The second route will serve the Meadows area, the Wilford/Ruddington Lane area and the Clifton Estate, terminating at a new park and ride site serving the A453.

A public inquiry on the plans is expected to take place towards the end of 2007.

Further planning approval will also be necessary before the scheme gets the final go-ahead.