Speaking on Manx Radio today, Julian Nutter, Secretary of the Manx Electric Railway Society claims next week's sale is part of a bigger plan to move the stables - whilst avoiding potential political embarrassment:
MR NUTTER: “This is jumping the gun. And its jumping the gun for a political reason. Somebody in the Corporation wants the people of Douglas to benefit from that development land value, and somebody within the Department wants to avoid the risk of having to be seen to be breaking up horse trams. There’s no guarantee they won’t be broken up if they’re sold. There’s brass on those things, there’s metal on those things, it has a value and it would be a terrible shame if they were to be destroyed.”
"This is all too hasty. It needs to be the subject of reflected thought, and it needs to be carefully brought about if it’s necessary. If it has to be done, well fine. But at the moment there’s no planning to put the stables into Stathallan horse car depot. And until there is, this is jumping the gun because there’s plenty of room in there for these particular horse trams.”
LINK TO MANX RADIO NEWS HERE and HERE
