Supertram organisers despair at delay

Transport secretary Alistair Darling's failure to make announcement on the future of the Leeds Supertram before Parliament's summer recess has angered the project's organisers.

"It is disgraceful that the government is treating Leeds in this offhand manner," said Leeds City Council leader Mark Harris. "Alistair Darling and Department for Transport (DfT) officials are fully aware that we are fast approaching a date beyond which the scheme will be extremely difficult to deliver, due to the expiry of compulsory purchase powers in March 2006.

"The Supertram Team needs to start acquiring 120 or so packages of land in September otherwise the current Supertram scheme will be in danger of being cancelled by default, so we can only hope that the DfT plans to announce a decision over the summer during the recess," he said.