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Transport (North-West)

I add my congratulations to the hon. Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle) on securing what has been a very important debate on transport in the north-west. The title of the debate is fairly broad and has given a number of MPs from across the north-west an opportunity to have their say and raise objections or state views on transport in the north-west, whether that is suggesting the reopening of Coppull station or talking about discussions on Ribble Valley Rail, travel to school or even high-speed rail in Taiwan. Having looked through Hansard to find out what the hon. Member for Chorley might want to talk about, I concluded that he wanted to raise the issue of free concessionary travel, given that he had asked a number of parliamentary questions on the issue and had suggested a topical debate on the possible extension of the scheme to include schoolchildren and students and widening the scheme to encompass trains. Fortunately, I bumped into the hon. Gentleman on the Floor of the House yesterday and was tipped off about the other issues that he wanted to discuss. The hon. Gentleman started by talking about the concessionary travel scheme, and although hon. Members on both sides of the House would support the principle of extending it—whether to young people or to other forms of public transport—the harsh reality is that we have not yet managed fully to fund the existing scheme. The expected shortfall in a number of local authorities in the north-west ranges from as little as £70,000 in Allerdale to more than £1,380,000 in Preston. Other north-west local authorities also have funding gaps and have been short-changed. The figure in Blackpool, for instance, is £1.25 million, while in South Lakeland it is £95,000. In the hon. Gentleman's own area, Chorley, the figure is more than £400,000.