On the wrong track as European cities put us to shame

From: Dan Laythorpe, Kendal Bank, Little Woodhouse, Leeds.

JUST what happens to politicians once they enter the murky portals of the ill-named – as far as Yorkshire is concerned – Department for Transport?

Take, for example, Norman Baker, MP (Lib Dem), now a Transport Minister in the coalition Government.

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When in opposition he was a vociferous campaigner for better public transport, particularly in the regions and particularly for vastly improved rail services and for the introduction of new light rail and train systems. Now he is reacting like the worst sort of maliciously asinine jobsworth stick in the mud civil servant with which the Department of Transport is already notoriously and generously peopled.

In the face of figures recently presented by the Passenger Transport Executive Group (PTEG) which show that London received nearly three times as much transport funding as Yorkshire, audaciously, he states: “I reject the idea that Yorkshire is underfunded.” Meanwhile, he actually acknowledges the figure and justifies his statement by saying: “It is not surprising that more money is spent in the capital. It has always been that way and it is the same with capital cities around the world.”

Well, the Government has been talking about rebalancing the economy away from the city of London back towards manufacturing and other industries, which means particularly to cities in Northern and Midland regions, and which means that the imbalance in transport funding, to the detriment of Yorkshire, has to be drastically reduced.

This, in turn, means that Baker’s incredibly reactionary attitude is completely at odds with Government policy – providing, of course, that Government means what it says, which it doesn’t, necessarily.

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If funding has always been skewed excessively in favour of the capital, it simply has to change if the country is to function cohesively as a whole.

And, incidentally Mr Baker, the situation is not necessarily the same in capitals around the world, as you well know.

Provincial cities in many European countries such as France, Germany, Spain and Holland have far superior public transport to that in the regions of our own benighted country, with generous investment integration having been made for many years, continuing as I write and projected for the future. They put this country’s attitude to transport in the regions to shame.

Take care, Mr Baker, you appear to be morphing into Alistair Darling, who, as an execrable Transport Secretary a few years ago, was the stubborn, arrogant, miserly bête noir of public transport in Leeds and condemned us to many years more of travelling misery by axing the Supertram scheme which would have solved many problems.