trams4swansea (Rob Speht Working hard for Landore Ward)

Rob Speht Working hard for Landore Ward <robertspeht@gmail.com>

As many of you will know I have been trying to nudge the council in Swansea to look at the idea of a tram system again. There have been some small successes but in the current climate of cuts in local government expenditure it has been very difficult to get a solid commitment from the City & County of Swansea to move this forward.

I know that the costs for a new tram system are huge, but I also know that the private sector will step to provide most of the funding needed once a project has progressed far enough in its planning and design. That is likely to be some years away and not in the short term. The problem has been to get officers (and Councillors) to look beyond the current lack of funds and think about projects that could happen in the future.

Anyway, I have decided that the way forward in the short term is to run this as a community project.

To that end I have incorporated a new limited company - Swansea & Mumbles Railway Company Ltd, to start the process of planning, designing, permitting and fund raising for a new tram system in Swansea.

This will be a BIG project and will take some years, so I am writing to you today to ask if you will help by volunteering some of your valuable time to help get this exciting project off the ground.

I am initially looking for volunteers to fill the following roles (unpaid);

Finance officer
Website management & media coordinator
Fund-raising manager
Technical coordinator
Company Secretary
Planning & Permitting manager
General volunteers to help organise

If you would like to help by volunteering or if you would like to suggest someone whom you think would be good for any of these roles, please contact me on robertspeht@googlemail.com or 07971 635290.

I will be announcing the date of the inaugural meeting of the Swansea & Mumbles Railway Company board soon - so watch this space!

I would like to thank you for your continuing interest and support and hope that the formation of this new Community Company will finally inject some momentum into the campaign to bring trams back to Swansea.

Kind regards, Rob