£30m Midland Metro plan put on hold

Plans to spend more than £30 million to extend the Midland Metro into Wolverhampton city centre are going back to the drawing board.

The Department for Transport faces £683m in cuts.

The move is due under the coalition government, and city regeneration chiefs said they had to put the plan "on the back burner".

Transport chiefs had been given leave to apply for the funding by the former Labour government in July last year and are still drawing up their business case.

They are now revising the circular route trams are set to take in a bid to make it more attractive to the new government.

Wolverhampton City Council's Conservative regeneration boss Councillor Paddy Bradley confirmed today: "The Metro is on the back burner. The money was going to come from the Government but it is extremely difficult at the moment."

Centro spokesman Steve Swingler said the transport authority was still developing its business case and working towards achieving the funding.

He said: "We expect to announce the preferred route later in the summer."

The Wolverhampton loop would see trams go beyond the current St George's terminus in the city centre, along Princess Street, down Lichfield Street and link up with the new £22.5m bus station currently under construction in Pipers Row before coming back to St George's.