“The Island's former infrastructure minister has described a business case to secure the future of the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway and Tramway Terrace as as 'an investment in guaranteeing our heritage infrastructure'.
The case for reinstating the tramway from Broadway to the Sea Terminal is set to be brought to Tynwald in May.
However, a motion up for debate at this month's sitting seeks to bring that deadline forward to April.
Douglas South MHK Sarah Maltby says it would be interesting to see if the treasury minister can commit further funding to maintaining heritage before the end of the current administration: ‘The current Treasury minister has always been very keen to talk about maintenance, maintenance, maintenance, I think, was one of his speeches that he gave so really passionately in Tynwald one time. And actually, if we don't maintain what we have and you don't invest in what we have, then you lose it. And I think he's been a strong campaigner of that. So it would be really helpful to see that in his short time that he has a Treasury minister, whether he can do anything to commit further funding. But it's just not realistic. It's not something I think is going to happen. I think it does take a real push from everybody to say why it's important to them.’
Meanwhile, Rushen MHK and former minister Michelle Haywood says it's important that the building and the stables are also given due consideration: ‘That’s a fantastic visitor attraction going around and seeing the horses. And yet we've got this dilapidated, falling down building covered in scaffold there. So that business case is also underway. And I was hoping to bring forward both of the business cases together. We are but temporary guardians of these assets. We have to look at them as the previous generations have managed to preserve them and to conserve them, and we need to do the same.’ ”