“This isn’t a long term vision, this is part of our 365 Master Plan, which is a ten year vision to revitalise the town centre.“Crucial to this increasing footfall but also creating better connectivity with our villages so that people from Sunderland and Cleadon can get through to*South Shields.
”Nexus, the Metro operator, has ambitions to expand the network opening up new stations as well as invest £300m in new trains.It idea has also been floated of expansion to Cobalt business park, Newcastle’s West End, Washington, the Metrocentre and the Team Valley through a combination of expanding the Metro network, adopting disused rail branches like the Leamside line and rolling out on-street trams.And in South Tyneside one proposed tram route is fromSouth Shields*to Seaburn, which would begin at council owned land at around the South Shields’ docks area.Coun. Malcolm, said: “We want to make sure that when Nexus talk about South Tyneside, at the top of the agenda is the tram.“We want it to start opposite the magistrates’ court in Commerical Road in South Shields and run to Cleadon and then on to the Metro at Sunderland.”He said he hoped the council owned land at the town’s docks would become a hive of business activity in coming years and better transport links would be vital.Discussing transport plans at a meeting of the town council’s overview and scrutiny committee, he said gaining funding for larger transport projects in the borough was feasible as the authority is ‘punching above its weight’ for financial support from the Treasury.He said the Combined Authority of seven North East councils and the Local Enterprise Partnership are key organisations in helping securing money for projects, while mentioning that funding was already in place for a proposed Testos junction flyover on the A19.
