to Cllr Rebbekah Collins

Dear Rebbekah

It was lovely to hear from you.  Thanks so much for your email.

I wonder if you might explain your thinking on a couple of points.

Your "unavoidable environmental disruption" means the complete covering over of the nearest thing that Merry Hill has to a wildlife site and public open space, with 400 metres of double-track railway viaduct for the Metro trams. This, for a cost of over £50 million for the viaduct alone, will isolate the trams from the railway line in Brierley Hill. The tramway connects only with buses and the railway remains wasted!

Do you think all this could be avoided if the trams STAYED on the railway line all the way to Stourbridge Jct railway station with a tram stop still in Brierley Hill?

You say it is too late to change the plans. Many others have also said this over the decades, including a former leader of ours, Cllr Fred Hunt. In the 1990s, he also told me, quite seriously, that the Dudley Tram would be up and running by 2000. ​That is ​22 years ago.  How wrong he was but, as everyone has always thought, since the 1990s that it is too late to stop the Dudley Tram, it has always stifled discussion on the more responsible ​and sensible ​alternative!

Do you think it would be less expensive, easier to achieve and save the environmental disruption, for the trams from Dudley town to link up with the trains in Stourbridge, via your ward?

Many thanks for giving me your thoughts and writing. It is really good of you.