Stockport Liberal Democrats cautiously welcome the announcement made by GM mayor Andy Burnham that progress is being made towards the delivery of a business case for Metrolink to bring trams to Stockport, but with no work starting until 2025 and no trams running until some years after this.
Speaking after the public announcement, Cllr Mark Hunter, Leader of the Lib Dems on Stockport Council, said: “Of course we welcome any sign that Metrolink will finally come to Stockport. This was what was promised back in the early 1980s and, as Stockport has continued to financially and politically support the expansion of the Metrolink network into other boroughs, it is what has been repeatedly promised time and again over the decades since.
“This announcement is little more than a re-statement of what has been agreed before. In 2015, joint work between then Lib Dem-led Stockport Council and Transport for Greater Manchester set the aim to bring Metrolink in to Stockport in the funding period 2020-25, so this is actually just an announcement that the ambition has been pushed back to the end of the queue yet again. Frankly this feels like déjà vu, I remain to be convinced that any work will have started on installing tram tracks by 2025, and funding has to come from central government to make this happen.
“Stockport residents are tired of being given crumbs off the table and won’t settle for more promises of ‘tram tomorrow’.”
