A ROW about proposals to provide Malvern with a system of "trackless cars" was causing some head in Malvern 100 years ago, if the Malvern News is to be believed.
A public meeting on the topic was held at the Link, and out of some 400 people there, only ten voted against a motion calling for the council to support the proposal.
The chairman of the urban district council, Sir Henry Grey was adamantly opposed to the plan. He said that "trackless cars would do more harm than good. Who would pay for the wear and tear on the roads? Certainly not the company, and if the work had to be done by the district council, that meant that the ratepayers would have to pay for it.
"He believed it was argued that if trackless cars came to Malvern there would be penny fares. The council had gone into the matter with the head of an eminent firm of engineers, and it appeared that penny, and even two penny fares, would be out of the question.
"One of the most amusing and amazing features of the Link meeting was the contribution to the discussion by Mr F R Hudson, who had travelled all the way from Malvern Wells to protest that trackless cars would cut up the road! Mr Hudson is prominently connected with the local quarrying industry, and the condition of the roads at Malvern Wells caused by traction engines driven to and from the quarries there is, to put it mildly, a disgrace to the district."
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