Labour: 'We did fail to listen'

9:10am Thursday 25th May 2006

IN a remarkable u-turn the Labour group at Ealing Council have voted to oppose the West London Tram, going back on their pre-election manifesto commitment to the project and revealing "immense divisions" in the party.

At the first full council meeting of the new Conservative administration, Labour reversed their position voting with the Tories to scrap the development proposals, admitting their support had cost them the election.

And South Acton Labour councillors Liz Brookes and Yvonne Johnson revealed they had always been opposed to the scheme, saying that many in their party had wanted to see Stephen Sears the councillor responsible for originally encouraging the Labour council to support the scheme "strung up".

Cllr Johnson said: "We have known for years the people in Acton did not want the tram. We wanted to put forward a motion to the group to uncouple ourselves from the tram but did not think in the end it would have worked.

"Many of us would have liked to have strung up councillor Sears at some points."

Cllr Brookes added: "It is good to get to a position of reality on the tram. When campaigning I met about three people who supported the tram I have never seen so many posters against it. It was a great flaw of our party not to listen to these voices. We did fail to listen. It was arrogant on our part."

Shadow deputy leader Gurcharan Singh said the election result had "settled the argument". He said: "This is something which has been very unpopular and we accept that it has been a major factor in our defeat. The public have decided this for all of us and we need to move on."

Portfolio holder for transport Councillor Will Brooks welcomed the speeches, adding: "The tram was ill-concieved, the arguments in support of it were greatly embellished and plainly wrong."

Following the unanimous vote rejecting the scheme, the council has now disbanded the team of consultants which was working with Transport For London on the plan, and council leader Jason Stacey has written to the leaders of two other local authorities on the route, Hillingdon and Hammersmith and Fulham, to discuss joining forces and potentially pooling resources against the scheme.

The leader admitted TfL may now try to punish the council by withdrawing funding for other schemes in the borough, but added: "Let me make it clear that we will not be bullied or cajoled into accepting the half-baked tram scheme."

Newly-elected leader of the Labour group Sonika Nirwal, said: "We recognise the climate has changed and therefore we remove our support for the West London Tram. But £650m has been earmarked for the project. To turn our back on this funding would be irresponsible. Congestion problems and related health issues in the borough need to still be addressed."