Kirklees Council: Concerns Dewsbury will get 'left behind' in West Yorkshire tram plan

Aound £800m is being spent making a tram system a reality for West Yorkshire.

The first two lines will go from St James’s University Hospital in Leeds through the city centre to the White Rose Centre, and from Bradford city centre to Leeds city centre.

In the later phases of the scheme, a Dewsbury line is planned - though it is not yet set in stone.

Speaking at a recent council meeting, Kirklees Council’s cabinet member for Transport and Housing, Coun Moses Crook, said a £1m investment had already been put in by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) to begin developing the case for a tram in Dewsbury, with the potential future investment for Kirklees, “huge”.

But leader of the Community Alliance Group, Coun Cathy Scott had some concerns.

She said: “While it may seem a major opportunity for connectivity, it’s important to understand what the current proposal actually means for Dewsbury.

"Despite being named in this possible future route, Dewsbury is not included in phase one of the mass transit roll out. Phase one focuses only on Leeds, Bradford and South Leeds.

"Dewsbury’s inclusion is limited to a feasibility study that may or may not lead to further development – that’s very worrying.”

Councillor Crook said that while he agreed there is not currently a “cast iron” commitment to bring trams to Dewsbury, he does not believe the town to be overlooked.

He highlighted a number of investments being put into the town, such as rail upgrades and the new bus station, and said it is “absolutely not” the case that Dewsbury is being underrepresented.

Councillor Scott thanked Coun Crook for his response and said: “It’s really interesting because I know you will understand how we feel that the real risk of Dewsbury is again left waiting while other areas are allowed to flourish as a priority.

"We want to ensure that we receive concrete commitments and resources to allow this Dewsbury line development project, not to just be exploratory, we want an end game here.

“We want a destination for Dewsbury to be something, not just a tumbleweed driving through it which is happening at the moment.”

Councillor Crook said: “I fundamentally disagree with what you’re saying and actually talking about Dewsbury in that context to me, it seems to me talking the town down.

"We’ve got a massive commitment of investment into that part of Kirklees, this is just one small part of it.

“I would like to point out that Dewsbury is the first town in Kirklees that we’re working towards inclusion in the tram network which, as Tracy Brabin has repeatedly said, is a commitment to a network across West Yorkshire.

"The time frames for delivering the scale of infrastructure project are necessarily long but again, I will identify that what we’re doing here is making sure that Dewsbury is included in that conversation through our inclusion as Kirklees in that conversation and that will, in and of itself, bring investment as business case is developed into Dewsbury.

“There is no world in which this particular process is not of massive advantage to Dewsbury, Kirklees and to the whole of the region so I absolutely support it.”