TRANSPORT plans in the city will be set back by at least five years after the damning High Court verdict on the doomed tram scheme, it was claimed last night.
Pulling the plug on Line One, the 11-mile route between Liverpool and Kirkby, will have a knock-on effect on the region's major schemes between now and 2011.
It also means the authority does not have the cash to splash out on additional services and projects until the £56m bill for drawing up designs and carrying out preparatory works has been paid off.
The Local Transport Plan, a strategic blueprint of how new and existing transport provision in the region fits together, was drawn up on the basis that the tram would go ahead. It includes the Hall Lane and Edge Lane road schemes.
In an in-depth interview with the Daily Post, Neil Scales and Cllr Mark Dowd explained the wider implications of the scheme's collapse.
Mr Scales said: "This will have a major impact on the plans for key routes in the city.
"How can the Grosvenor scheme achieve 66% of people coming to the development by public transport without the trams?
"Two major planks of the transport plan going to Kirkby and Whiston are not there. We are looking now at how to rebuild that.
"They need to be connected to health centres, leisure facilities, shops, education.
"Not having the trams will seriously effect the regeneration of the sub-region.
"It will mean we cannot move on other projects as quickly as we would like. We will not be able to do any more than we had already planned for. We are no worse off, but we are not better off."
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