The below is a statement sent out by SIGOMA (Special Interest Group of Municipal Authorities)  Leaders to staff on the 3/07/2017.

We repost it here to raise awareness of concerning developments which appear to indicate the cancelling of Northern Powerhouse rail funding- and an associated petition which Stockport Labour endorses fully.

 

Dear Colleagues,

The Secretary of State for Transport has made a regrettable series of announcements in recent weeks on the subject of cancelling work on Northern Powerhouse rail, whilst confirming the intention to press ahead with CrossRail2 in London. This action has disappointed many observers, including IPPR[1] North, who have created an online petition asking the Secretary of State to:

 

1) Pledge his immediate backing for the Northern Powerhouse Rail programme including a new state-of-the-art 30-minute rail link between Manchester and Leeds – a ‘Crossrail North’;

 

2) Make an immediate commitment to at least £59 billion ‘catch-up cash’ over the coming decade to support the transport priorities being developed by Transport for the North;

 

3) Give Transport for the North the same powers as those enjoyed by Transport for London so that it can also raise private finance towards its own transport priorities.

 

The northern project was set to bring notable investment to our area, enhancing our economic growth potential, and the announcements follow years of unbalanced transport infrastructure investment between not just London and the North, but the capital and the rest of the country.

 

You may be interested to read and, if you feel strongly about this issue, sign the petition intended to draw the government’s attention to this issue and encourage the rebalancing of regional investment.

VIEW PETITION: More money for transport in the North

 

Please note that this is an independent petition which requires a name, email address and post code to avoid duplicating signatories. The Council will not have, and would not wish to have, access to records of the individuals who have signed the petition.

 

The petition has already exceeded 50,000 signatures and is currently being shared by other likeminded Councils across the country.

 

Reaching 100,000 signatures will encourage debate of these issues in parliament. This does not guarantee a reversal of the decision but will give constituency MPs the chance to put our case to their colleagues in parliament.