Nottingham Express Transit Extension

Debate between Chris Leslie and Paul Maynard

Wednesday 14th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Paul Maynard)]

It was a pleasure to listen to the speech by my right hon. Friend the Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry), who spoke with her customary vim and vigour. It is fair to say that she and I share a great deal of experience of major tram works in our constituencies. They are not always plain sailing, particularly when they happen to cross the borough boundary of the sponsoring authority. That can cause problems and I recognise in what she has said a lot of my own past seven years as a Member of Parliament.

The Government are supportive of light rail in the right place. It is clear that it is a mode of transport that is convenient, reliable and increasingly popular. It also has considerable scope for innovation, particularly where it offers an alternative to expensive heavy rail solutions to potential transport problems. More people are travelling by tram and light rail than at any time since records began in 1983, with a 5.8% increase in the past year alone. The improvements being made to services are creating not just transport systems that people can rely on, but jobs, growth and opportunity—and the fly that seems to have taken an overly close interest in my head as I speak—as part of building an economy that works for everybody.

Recent analysis of six light rail networks by Transport Focus shows that overall journey satisfaction increased to 92% in 2015, and the figure is an incredible 98% in Nottingham. Those are the types of satisfaction figures that every politician dreams of—if we could but get them. That is why the Government have committed £371 million to the overall phase 2 of the Nottingham tram system.

I am sure that my right hon. Friend does not need me to highlight the importance of Greater Nottingham’s economy, which is worth approximately £10.7 billion and supports about 300,000 locally based jobs. Nottingham is a regional capital and an important industrial and commercial centre. It is vital that it has a transport system that is reliable and can support customers, shoppers, commuters and visitors.

The light rail system is a key element in Greater Nottingham’s transport strategy. Since phase 1 opened, it has served more than 10 million passengers a year, taking approximately 3 million car journeys off the local roads and improving accessibility for local communities. Phase 2 has been open for just over a year, and it is already clear that it is boosting the local economy and improving employment levels and supply chain expenditure in the local area.

There are an immense number of positives that I could list at great length in the time available, but I acknowledge my right hon. Friend’s point that it has not all been plain sailing. Work on the extension presented a number of challenges, which affected the local community. Closing two main roads for six months for safety reasons had an immense impact on local communities, affecting trade for local businesses. During the Blackpool upgrade the centre of Cleveleys was cut off for a while and many of the businesses on Lord Street in the neighbouring town of Fleetwood also had to shut down, so I have seen for myself the impact that can have on a local community.

Although it is inevitable that any such project is going to cause disruption to third parties, including local residents and businesses, that needs to be properly and effectively managed and planned, in co-operation with the local community. I know that efforts were made by the promoters to help minimise the impact, but it is always clear that more can be done. I know that the promoters undertook a number of additional measures to help deal with the problems encountered along the way, including a discretionary financial package for small businesses and logistic support for traders and visitors during the particularly intrusive works. I suspect that my right hon. Friend herself had a significant hand in the development of much of that. I think that such measures need to be put in place much earlier in the development of such schemes, so that businesses and residents have greater certainty about what help will come their way.

I know that there were particular concerns about communication with stakeholders and local people, and I agree entirely that engagement with businesses and residents must be undertaken, both at the time of the scheme’s original development and throughout its construction, and in a timely fashion so that no one is taken unawares.

I am convinced that more can always be done in such situations. Uncertainty about both the timescale and the timeliness of works can harm small businesses and the decisions that people make about how they spend their lives, where they live and what they do with their properties. With that in mind, I wholeheartedly agree with my right hon. Friend that it is vital that lessons are learned in the construction of all major local infrastructure projects. I understand that, in this particular case, a lessons learned report is due to be published shortly. It will have to focus on issues such as project programming; delivery planning; how utility diversions can be managed better; the nature and extent of disruption to third parties; and the implementation of traffic management measures.

Both the Department and I will want to study the outcomes and conclusions of that report as we consider what further steps are required. I agree that we need to apply these lessons to future infrastructure projects to do all we can to minimise negative impacts, and we will work with UK Tram which represents the wider light rail sector to disseminate these findings.

I will be delighted to come to Beeston when we can fit a visit into our diaries and I look forward to meeting my right hon. Friend’s constituents. I take note of her points about cycling safety. I have seen for myself in Blackpool that what appears to be a cycle path can be all too inviting, when in fact it is not a cycle path at all—it is a tram track, and cycles have no place on tram tracks. I entirely support the points that she makes on that.

[Chris Leslie (Nottingham East) (Lab/Co-op)]

I commend the right hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry) for raising important points about taking care during infrastructure construction, but my constituents use the tram, they love it and they would like it to extend eventually to the east side of the city.

[Paul Maynard]

I note the hon. Gentleman’s comments. I hope I have made it clear that I think there are immense benefits from light rail, both in Nottingham and around the country, but those positive aspects should not minimise the impact on those who live immediately adjacent to the tram tracks, who may encounter disruption. In my constituency the tram track has been there for 100 years, so when it was upgraded the disruption was no surprise to anyone. When we are planning new tram routes, that may come as more of a surprise to people, who were not expecting the route to appear on a particular road. It will always be a case, I suppose, of horses for courses.