YP Letters: Grayling shows ministers' focus is south of Watford Gap

LONG with many of my constituents, I was dismayed by the recent comments from Transport Secretary Chris Grayling in your newspaper (The Yorkshire Post, August 23). It is deeply disappointing for someone in his position to apparently want nothing to do with anything north of the Watford Gap!

This Government either do not recognise or do not care about the importance of investment in the North. Spending on transport in Yorkshire was £180 per head in 2015/16 – compared with £746 per head in London.

Yorkshire is still waiting for a meaningful devolution deal which would give us some possibility of managing our own affairs. But the Government have dragged their heels, blamed everyone but themselves for their failure and neglected to provide adequate funding in the meantime.

Mr Grayling and the Government have broken election promises shamelessly, once again leaving those of us in the North behind. Even George Osborne has recently urged the Government to rethink their complete lack of interest in Northern infrastructure projects.

Since the Conservatives took power, our country has become more divided than ever. The Government should not allow the appalling regional inequality in England to continue. I won’t stand for it – and neither will my constituents.

From: John Appleyard, Firthcliffe Parade, Liversedge.

COMMUTERS in Britain spend six times as much on rail fares as passengers in the rest of Europe and now we hear from the Government nearly half of rail fares are to rise by nearly four per cent.

Meanwhile the private train operating companies paid out £228m to their shareholders and the same companies received a public handout of £3.2bn in the same year. These same companies, in conjunction with the Government, are putting our security at risk by plotting to get rid of guards on our trains which would, of course, help boost their profits and is one good reason for taking the railways back into public ownership.

From: Coun Tim Mickleburgh (Lab), , Grimsby.

OF course the North should get its fair share of rail investment. But while I support a line from Hull being electrified, please spare a thought for those of us living south of the Humber. We have to endure a slow journey to Doncaster before having to change as we have no direct service to London.