Leeds transport chiefs remain bullish about the prospects of receiving funding for the £250 million Leeds trolleybus - despite a damning government report casting doubt over the future of the scheme.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has revealed how the trolleybus project has the second lowest "benefit cost ratio" out of a list of 22 schemes which have been competing for £630m of funding since October.
The table questioning the project's value for money was reported by the YEP here.
Metro chairman Chris Greaves today argued that the scheme provides the second-highest level of overall benefits of the projects on the list. This includes the creation of 4,000 permanent jobs, which is likely to be the highest of any of the listed schemes.
He is now pushing for a meeting with Secretary of State for Transport Philip Hammond to push forward Leeds' case.
Greaves said:
"When the trolleybus network achieved Programme Entry in March 2010, the DfT agreed that it achieved high value-for-money, which was also a criteria for the scheme's entry into the Coalition's development pool.
"At the time they approved the scheme, DfT officials acknowledged that they had taken the most pessimistic view of the scheme's benefits and that scope existed to improve them – work in which Metro and Leeds council have been engaged with the DfT since the announcement of the Comprehensive Spending Review proposals.
"While the DfT's report shows the NGT trolleybus network as being in the government's development pool, the scheme will not require any funding from this three-year £600m spending pot.
"As a result of the new evaluation process, and the resulting delays to the development process, NGT will no longer need to call on government funding within the three-year Comprehensive Spending Review period and any development over the next three years would be funded from local contributions to the scheme, as long as the city has a guarantee from the government that the scheme will go ahead."
Greaves said Metro and Leeds council have been urging the government to treat NGT as a special case and to give the scheme early approval. He added:
"We were encouraged by the confirmation in last Friday's report that the DfT will consider making such early decisions on a truly exceptional basis.
"We believe that NGT is that truly exceptional basis.
"When the government axed Leeds Supertram in 2005, the city was guaranteed by the DfT that if it put together a bus-based alternative which delivered a Benefit Cost Ratio of at least 2 to 1, the scheme would be given the go-ahead.
"The NGT trolleybus network exceeds this target and we are now pushing for a meeting with Secretary of State for Transport Philip Hammond at which we will be urging him and the government to make good on the department's promise."
The Leeds trolleybus network would link two new park-and-ride sites to the north and south of Leeds with the city centre. The previous Labour government had pledged to contribute £235m towards the scheme, with the remaining funding coming from the council and Metro.
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