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Local Transport

Of course. The problems result from deregulation, under-investment, and the privatisation of rail. Having said that, I am also going to say something nice about the Conservatives. I do not often do that, so I have to put it in its real context. From the abolition of the Greater Manchester metropolitan council in 1986, which left no expertise on the new passenger transport authority, under a Conservative Government it took five years from the planning stage for the Queen to come and open the tram system in Greater Manchester. The applications for the extension of Metrolink have been in since the start of this Government. The Deputy Prime Minister gave his authority for Metrolink to go ahead in 2000. It is now 2007, and we are getting documents—a year late, according to the Government’s own timetable—that directly inhibit progress. That is completely unacceptable, as far as I am concerned. I have talked a lot about trams, but there are two other schemes in Greater Manchester that provide an example of how the system is slow and fails to meet local priorities. The A57/A628 bypass round Mottram, Hollingworth and Tintwistle was agreed after public consultation in 1993. Tameside council wants it, Greater Manchester wants it, and there is no alternative. It has been through a whole series of reassessments under the previous Government and this Government. According to the latest projections, however, the earliest date by which it is likely to be completed is 2012. The other example is the Leigh guided busway. I have already talked to the Minister of State, Department of Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), about this matter. In a way, he is a good exemplar of the lack of understanding of what is local and what is national. Last Wednesday, I was in a very happy mood, having voted to abolish the other place. I was sitting down in the Strangers Bar to watch Manchester United go through to the next round of the European cup, when along bounced my hon. Friend. I was sitting with Councillor Roger Jones, the chair of the Greater Manchester passenger transport authority, whom the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Carmichael) has already mentioned. My hon. Friend the Member for Leigh asked, ““Where’s my guided busway?”” He should really ask his ministerial colleagues in the Department for Transport why a £26 million scheme that was agreed seven years ago and has had three public consultations—for planning, and under the Road Traffic Act and the Transport and Works Act—has still not been approved. The scheme is very pro-public transport and anti-congestion, and I hope that my hon. Friend and the people of Leigh get it. He should not, however, harass the chair of the passenger transport authority; he should harass my hon. Friends the Transport Ministers. The report shows that even in the context of the present local government settlement, the balance between central Government and detailed interference in national priorities, which sometimes has perverse effects at a local level, is wrong. The Government need to take more notice than they have done of the Transport Committee’s report.