Kimberley feasibility study back on track

Late in 2014 it seemed as though the hopes for extending Nottingham Express Transit to Kimberley were fading following Broxtowe Borough Council’s decision not to provide funding towards a feasibility study. However just three weeks after the vote at a full Council meeting it was taken to the table again – this time with a completely different outcome!

On 16th December the four Labour Councillors voted in favour of providing £20,000 towards the study but two Liberal Democrats and four Conservatives voted against meaning it was defeated. But the latest vote – taking place on 6th January – has seen the Liberal Democrats change sides and vote in favour on the understanding that then study would also include a highway impact study.

The proposed extension would leave the current Nottingham Express Transit network at the Phoenix Park terminus and would travel via Hempshill Hall Farmhouse, Low Wood Road, under the M1, past the Midland Railway tunnel and arriving at the former Kimberley Brewery.

Mott Macdonald will be employed to conduct the survey with the remaining £30,000 coming from British Land – owners of Giltbrook Retail Park. Although the feasibility study is a positive step towards the extension it should be noted that there is no funding currently available for the line and the Borough Council would need support from other local authorities if it was ever to get off the ground.

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2 Responses to Kimberley feasibility study back on track

  1. roger woodhead says:

    I really hope that political dogma can be put to one side and all the local authorities concerned may find the funding to enable this extension to happen.

  2. John Gilbert says:

    It is a pity that so far no proposals for further extensions WITHIN Nottingham have surfaced. In any case, all proposals still have to get through that dread territory, British bureaucracy – referred to correctly by Mr Woodhead as Political Dogma, the reason why so relatively few people interest themselves in politics nowadays. Remember the original decision by Nottinghamshire Conservatives to have nothing to do with the latest extensions? They are back on board now of course, but the existence of the new extensions is no thanks to them….and their “political dogma;” if they had had their way the new extensions would not exist!

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