Spending cuts: Leeds trolleybus faces the axe

The people of Leeds are awaiting Wednesday's comprehensive spending review with bated breath. The city has a lot to lose. The highest profile scheme facing the axe is the city's proposed new trolleybus – or New Generation Transport (NGT) – scheme, which is hoping for just under £200m of government funding. The project, officially "put on ice" earlier this year, would establish routes to the north of the city to Holt Park and south to Stourton, and a city centre link. The Leeds trolleybus scheme is of significant economic, social and environmental benefit to a city which in the past decade has missed out on funding for a supertram network and has suffered a legacy of transport under-spending. It would be the first new trolleybus scheme in the country for about 40 years and would help to create 4,000 new jobs locally as well as generating a £160m per annum boost for the city region's economy, according to Metro, West Yorkshire's publicly-funded passenger transport authority. Also facing an uncertain future is the £30m Holt Park Wellbeing Centre. The showpiece community health and leisure hub had its funding suspended by the government two weeks before work was due to start. Other projects on hold include work to refurbish or rebuild 10 playgrounds across Leeds after the national Playbuilder scheme was frozen. John Baron is the Guardian's Beatblogger, Leeds