Tram strikes and the demolition of a city centre car park are causing “severe disruption” in Nottingham, but a council leader says many have waited decades to see the structure torn down.
GMB union members working on the NET tram network went on strike in a dispute over pay, meaning no trams were running on Friday or Saturday.
Homes England, which purchased the former Broadmarsh Centre site from Nottingham City Council last year, is demolishing the former NCP car park over Maid Marian Way.
The demolition, followed by the removal of the derelict former Bluecoat sixth form college, will pave the way for around 1,000 homes and up to 20,000 square metres of retail, office and community space.
Traffic cannot pass beneath the car park while demolition takes place, with diversions expected to remain in place until late October or November. The restrictions have led to challenging conditions across the city centre.
Ethan Radford, deputy leader of Nottingham City Council, said: “We’ve been in discussions as we usually do around this time of year with NET and the unions around the pay of the tram drivers.
“As a Labour council we support the right for workers to strike and also we are aware of the issues this can cause at this time of year with Goose Fair. We hope that NET and the unions can come to a conclusion on this.
“In terms of the delays on Maid Marian Way I completely understand the concerns around the traffic jams it has caused, but we’ve been waiting decades to tear down that car park. If you want the city to improve and if you want to see the city developed, then sometimes we are going to have to do some roadworks.”
The combination of disruption has prompted bus operators and a city school to take measures to minimise its impact.
Gemma Pettifor, assistant principal at Ellis Guilford School, said the school had deployed a bus to collect children so the tram strikes would not affect their education.
She said: “We were determined that transport disruption shouldn’t become a barrier to education. So today, we took matters into our own hands, sending our school bus out across Nottingham city to collect children and get them through the school gates.
“Our children’s education, routines and experience of school matter enormously to us, and our staff have worked incredibly hard to make sure as many children as possible can still be here.
“A tram strike shouldn’t mean a lost day of education.”
Anthony Carver-Smith, for Nottingham City Transport, said the demolition work had been causing “severe disruption”.
Both NCT and trentbarton have changed routes in an attempt to avoid the worst congestion and keep services moving.
Mr Carver-Smith said: “NCT, alongside other bus operators, have been in discussion with Nottingham City Council since the works started to identify solutions that will speed up the traffic flow.
“We thank all of our customers for their patience and understanding during these works, and our staff who have been trying their best to keep bus services moving as best they can.”
A trentbarton spokesperson said the demolition was also causing significant delays on several routes.
They said: “To try to minimise delays on our routes we are terminating the following services at Broadmarsh Bus Station until further notice: mainline, skylink Nottingham, skylink express, the cotgrave and the keyworth.
“From Monday, October 5 we will not serve Friar Lane, Beastmarket Hill and Mount Street between 8am and 8pm.
“Our message to customers is please allow extra time for your journey and do be reassured that our teams are doing everything they can to help. Keep checking our social media and other online resources for updates.
“We hope the diversion plan is very much kept under active review to try to mitigate some of the most severe impacts for the rest of the duration of the work. We have been working with Nottingham City Council to look at what can be done and they have made some changes to the traffic lights which have helped.
“Projects such as this are necessary, but during such works buses and other forms of public transport should be protected and prioritised as they are vital to keeping Nottingham moving in the most efficient way possible while the highways network is at reduced capacity.
“It is for this reason we are encouraging East Midlands Combined County Authority to commit to prioritising public transport during times of highways disruption in the new regional enhanced partnership.
“Meanwhile, for the final weekend of Goose Fair we are putting on additional buses and drivers to match the increased demand.”
City residents said they did not believe the disruption would deter people from visiting Goose Fair.
Ann Mann, who has lived in Nottingham for more than 80 years, said: “I never go on the tram anyway. I think it is chaos anywhere you go nowadays.
“But I feel the city is going in the right direction.”
One Aspley resident added: “People can still get there. We have a great bus service. If people want to go they will still go.”
By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
