THE Bournemouth Chamber of Trade and Commerce hailed the possibility of trams returning as “fabulous”.

An ambitious plan for Landsowne and the station area includes leaving space for a light rail system.

“It’s a brilliant idea,” said Mandy Payne, the group's spokesperson. “It would bring back the atmosphere needed in a tourist town.”

She added that having a direct link to the seafront would be of great benefit to visitors.

Cllr David Kelsey, chair of Bournemouth council's planning board, said: “All these things are possible. The town gets clogged up with traffic at the moment so anything we can do to ease that clogging has got to be worth looking at.

“I wouldn’t like to say yes or no on whether it will definitely happen but we have to look at all possibilities at the moment.”

Ward councillor for the town centre David Smith said a tram system would require “substantial government funding”.

“It’s an extremely expensive option to undertake and as usual these things are largely dependent on money,” he said. “My purely personal opinion is it is completely unrealistic in the current road network we have.”

The idea of bringing back trams has arisen several times in previous years, with Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood previously suggesting a link between the airport and seafront.