Gary Ridley has reacted with astonishment to the news that the Labour government are demanding a change of name for the NUCKLE (Nuneaton, Coventry, Kenilworth, and Leamington) Rail scheme. The City Council has been promoting phase one of the scheme that would improve rail linkages from Nuneaton to Coventry including a new station at the Ricoh Arena. At a later stage Phase two would improve links from Coventry to Kenilworth and Leamington.

Although phase one of the scheme has been identified as a key transport priority for the region the government are still to confirm its final approval and have refused to help fast track this project by shifting the goalposts or coming up with new objections to delay the scheme each time previous criteria have been met. The government now wants the Council to change the name of the scheme to "manage public expectation" about future links to Kenilworth and Leamington, despite earlier this year criticizing the idea that the project would be phased, suggesting instead that it should be done in one!
 
Cllr Gary Ridley, Cabinet Member for City Development and Parliamentary Candidate for Coventry North West said;
 
"Around 70,000 people a day travel from Nuneaton to Coventry and one train carriage an hour is not sufficient to support this level of demand. Phase one of the NUCKLE scheme would improve this service as well as creating a station at the Ricoh arena, phase two however was always some way off. We are therefore somewhat surprised that the Government are more interested in playing about with names than getting on with delivering this vital scheme."
 
The Government has recently announced its support for a range of railway infrastructure projects, such as £50m to tidy up existing railway stations and a multi billion pound national high speed rail project, but Government support for this scheme still remains in doubt. The £16m scheme has been subjected to a lengthy approvals process even though several key partners such as Centro, the FA Licensing Authority and the British Transport Police are backing the scheme.