At a recent meeting, we were told that GMPTE are proposing to run trams from 3am to Manchester Airport (Friday & Sat now run till 1am at Stretford).

Most households along the entire route would object to that, if they knew. The Airport route will affect residents sleeping in close proximity of the trams, in Chorlton, Northern Moor, Baguley, Benchill and Wythenshawe, and perhaps right into the city centre through Firswood, Trafford and Castlefield. Many studies have shown that not getting enough sleep damages health and harms children’s education, and the Human Rights Act is supposed to prevent a public authority from intruding disproportionately into a person's private life or preventing enjoyment of a person’s home. As the tram route runs for the most part through very residential areas, if the airport needs to get workers to the airport in the middle of the night, we would have thought that there could be a better solution than running trams at unsociable hours.

GMPTE have not notified residents of the operating hours, so many people are not aware of the plans. If this 3am start time is news to you, your neighbour probably doesn’t know either.

So please:

·       sign our online petition against the tram from starting this journey at 3am and

·       pass this message on.

·       You can also write to your local councillors asking them to help.

If you stay silent about this now, the tram route will not be silent in the middle of the night when you need to sleep.

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