‘Use trams to connect city to coast’

Coun John Fareham is calling for a support at a meeting of Hull Council this week to work with the region’s MEPs to secure funding for a light rapid transport system to coastal towns like Hornsea and Withernsea. He said: “Hull is the regional capital providing the largest concentrations of shopping, the broadest cultural offer, the only passenger ferry and the largest block of employment opportunities.

“If we are to be a go-ahead city, we need a modern intra-sub-regional mass transit system with a view to reconnecting isolated communities such as Hornsea and Withernsea, which were savagely neglected by Beeching, as well as Hull’s natural periphery.”

The Tory councillor believes funds may be available from Europe: “I would envisage getting some of our British taxes back from Europe; the Europeans are very keen on a sub-regional way of working – trams are used to commute from one German state to another.

“Siemens (the German manufacturer) is coming to Hull as part of Green Ports; their product is about green electricity; it seems to me we can tie this all in.”