Leeds Trolleybus Inquiry – The First Day
by Claire Randall
The long expected Leeds Trolleybus Enquiry began today. I shan’t be giving a blow by blow account of what was said as you can listen to my audio recordings of the three sessions on my Mixcloud site.
But some lay commentary may give an impression about it.
I dare say that this kind of thing can seem rather impenetrable to many people with all the formalities. There have been so many stages of comments and objections that one can feel lost in the detail.
An important entry point for some will be the fact that the first opportunity to feedback on what they thought of this proposed trolleybus scheme came with the ‘Consultation Events’ of which there were about 18, held from late 2012 through to the late summer of 2013 at community centres and church halls along the route of the proposed trolleybus from Holt Park to Stourton.
A great deal of concern has been generated by the refusal of NGT and Leeds City Council to release transcripts of the several hundred comments and emails which these generated, on what many believe are spurious grounds, as detailed by Chris Foren of the A660 Joint Council of community associations along the northern part of the route, to be heard at the beginning of the second recording linked above.
One rather throwaway remark that was made to this was that those people who filled in feedback forms at consultation events could have made formal objections if they had wanted to.
