June 2002

BACIT recently wrote to all traders on Chilwell Road, a couple of whom wrote back. Our response to their letters can be found here and here. What is most worrying about this is apparent lack of information these traders have about compensation and about what arrangements for parking and delivery will exist both during and after construction. NET have written to all the traders but the information isn't getting through. So come on NET. It is up to you to sell the benefits of the tram and keep the traders informed. What are you going to about their anti-tram stance and lack of information?

The Conservative, anti-tram, candidate won the election last night. The votes were:

Con 1488
Lab 1163
LibDem 552

The 2001 results were: Con 2320, Lab 2655, LibDem 931, Green 299.

Turnout was slightly over 35% (2001: 58%). There was a 6% drop in the Labour vote (and a corresponding Conservative rise), with the LibDem vote up 2%. Apparently the turnout was notably high at College House and Eskdale, along the route, while it fell drastically elsewhere.

Alan Dance writes

"Some of you displaying "Say Yes to the Tram" posters in your window may recently have received a letter from a Mr Malcolm Ellis who lives in Chilwell near to the proposed route of the tram. He is very much against the tram coming to Chilwell. ...BACIT is always keen to debate the issue openly and is not afraid to print the opinions of those who oppose the tram, so we asked Mr Ellis for permission to print his letter in full on our web site. He has kindly agreed to this..."

Read Mr Ellis's letter and Alan's reply here.

"What follows below is an transcript of an e-mail exchange between myself, Chris Tregenza (BACIT's web master) and Steve Carr (Liberal Democrat candidate for Chilwell by-election)... ...BACIT is a non-political organisation... ...I believed that BACIT are too close to NET... ...your organisation is dominated by "new" Labour... ...I will support BCBRA's fight tooth and nail...."

Read it in full.

Croydon's status as being the UK's benchmark tram system has been confirmed once again. UITP is the world-wide association of urban and regional passenger transport operators that has been established since 1885. They recently gave out two awards, including one for Croydon Tramlink. You can read it in full but this is the interesting bit.

"The second award went to Croydon Tramlink, just south of London, for its pioneering public/private partnership based on output-led performance specification. The scheme, which opened in May 2000, has proved very successful and runs without any subsidy. The Croydon Tramlink has lead to a 19% modal shift from the private car, town parking usage has fallen by 6% and shopping increased by 11%, which is important as in general commerce and shopkeepers can be opposed to new systems or lines during the planning stage. Almost more importantly, there has been a yearly increase of 20% in real-estate value along the Tramlink corridor so the Tramlink is acting as a real driver for a major regeneration of the Croydon area."

"Monday BCBRA (the anti-tram group) held a public meeting... political backbiting ... £250,000 to fight the public enquiry .... an anti-tram group not an anti-route group ... 'unfeasible route' with 'un-viable economics' ... if I was a pro-tram resident of the Chilwell ward I would despair over who to vote for."

Read the full story.

Small businessmen and women seem to make up a hard core of the anti-tram protesters, so we were pleased to receive this unsolicited e-mail in our info@BACIT.org mailbox:

"As a resident of Imperial Road and manager of a business employing 13 people on Middle Street I wanted to lend my support to your stance taken over the tram and wider transport policy...."

Read it in full.

Due to the death of the sitting councillor there will be by-election for Chilwell on Thursday 27th June. Obviously the tram will be a major part election campaign. Despite the claims of some anti-tram campaigners BACIT is not a political group. BACIT has members who support each of three parties standing in the Chilwell by-election. We do not endorse any candidate, believe in democracy and hope that the people of Chilwell will consider all issues and vote for whoever they think will represent them the best.

You can check out the three main web sites here:

Conservative, Anti-tram.
Liberal Democrats, Pro-tram but concerns about the route.
Labour, Nothing on the web site about the by-election (in fact they still list the contact details of the late Gorden Skinner) but I understand the candidate supports the project but will press the problems of Chilwell people on the route.

Safety is quite naturally one of the concerns of people have with the tram. So how safe are they? Well the trams in Croydon are making the road safer by reducing traffic and through the improved road junction designs that make it safer for motorists, cyclist and pedestrians.

"In 2001 the Croydon had the lowest rate of reported accidents to cyclists for any borough in London, for the second year running. (73 accidents)". Source: Croydon Advertiser for 31-5-2002.

Overall road accidents of all types fell as well, with 11% fewer people hurt, the lowest for 20 years.

Steve Barber, Co-Chair of BACIT writes:

"I had rather a nice visit yesterday. An elderly lady on the doorstep asking for a poster for her neighbour who couldn't attend the meeting. She then asked for a copy of the leaflet handed out at the meeting before producing an envelope full of loose change which she had collected for our cause. These are the people who will most benefit - those without cars."

Since it went online in March, this web-site has received more visitors month-on-month as BACIT have been able to publish more and more of the truth about the trams. Consistently the most popular articles on the web are about the anti-tram campaign discrepancies and the fallacies of the their arguments. We are now listed on several major search engines including Google, one of the most popular search engines. Not surprising, when searching on BACIT, we come out on top of the list but we also come out top when you search for "Beeston and Chilwell Against The Tram" and "Anti Tram" so that even the ardent anti-tram person cannot escape our presence. Its also worth mentioning http://www.chilwell.info/, news and information site for the Chilwell area and as you would expect it has a page on the tram issue.