Traffic Growth (Not if you can't move now)
This week the government announced it expected a 20% growth in traffic before the end of the decade, it had previously anticipated that a reduction in traffic flow of 6% could be achieved by 2010 (Sunday Times 28/03/04). Most mornings traffic queues currently start to form from Chilwell Olympia in to the City via Beeston, and similar queues form on the A52, (some 6 miles out). There are buses every three minutes from Beeston and frequently these are so busy people can’t get on. With the R5 service (although excellent) it is not uncommon to wait 20 to 30 minutes to get on a bus that is supposed to run at a six minute service frequency.
The Gasps of a
Following the discussion on evil trams near schools at the
Darling meeting, the tram expert who demolished the ill-informed argument
received and abusive email to his website signed by a Nottingham NIMBY. The
email warned him off commenting on the tram in Chilwell.
Despite being a qualified engineer working in the rail industry the expert
committed the two cardinal sins of being young and not from Chilwell,
so how can he possibly know more than the NOTTINGHAM NIMBY on the operation of
trams in the
Anti-Tram Balls
Those of you who are keen observers of the tram debate will be aware of south of the river group ENT’s section in their newsletter humorously called NET balls after the infamous Private Eye column. In this column ENT question the statements and professional integrity of the NET design staff. In homage to this when we will soon produce our own web page of ANTI-Tram Balls, unfortunately we will have to use a separate web page as we don’t have enough web space to put them all here.
Anti-tram Groups Want More Delay, (and more BLIGHT)
In the Evening Post 10th March the leaders of anti trams
groups BCT and south of the river group ENT, are quoted as wanting a pause and
a delay of a few years before proceeding with plans for the tram extensions.
Last week the other anti-tram group BCBRA (for once agreed with BACIT) were
complaining that the planning process is taking too long and people are
blighted, this formed part of a series of articles on planning blight in the
Evening Post.
BACIT has been campaigning since before Christmas to get the planning process
moving, to rid our area of planning blight and uncertainty. We have been aware
of the development of blight and want the councils to get on with the project
to help those who need to have their property purchased.
The position is, until NET apply for a Transport Works
Act Order (TWAO) they do not have powers of purchase, the council have not yet
given NET the authority to apply for a TWAO. Those whose houses have been
identified as required (now the preferred routes have been announced) obviously
can’t sell. Even if the scheme is
dropped these properties will remain blighted, as the scheme will not go away.
BACIT wants the councils to apply for a TWAO as soon as possible and buy the
land they need, to allow people who are truly affected get on with their lives.
Evil Trams Near Schools
It was reported in the Evening Post (9th March) that at the meeting with Mr Darling a long term resident of Chilwell stated to wild applause that it is evil to put tram lines near schools. However it was not reported that when it was pointed out that on other tram routes in the UK Schools advertise their proximity to the tram as a plus point when attracting pupils and that children use the tram to get to school, the pro-tram speaker was shouted down.
Alistair Darling Visits Beeston
Following the opening of the tram on Monday (8th March)
transport minister Alistair Darling held a public meeting in
Line One Opens
Today in the
BACIT Web Site
Sorry for the lack of updates to these web pages recently,
but be assured behind the scenes the BACIT campaign continues a pace.
We have formulated reposes to all the consultation exercises on the Beeston and Chilwell Tram
extension. To achieve this we have held public meetings with representatives of
NET, with appropriate councillors in attendance and involved all the key
community groups in helping give an informed opinion on the tram to our area.
We have been lobbying both local and national politicians on the scheme and we
have lead the way on the recently developing issue of
blight and delay which has been in the local press.
Having been very busy with this behind the schemes work we have not had chance
to update the web site as frequently as we would have liked and we apologies
for this.