05 October 2023 , 13:20
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Rishi Sunak desperately tried to quell criticism of his decision to axe HS2’s northern leg by announcing the £36billion earmarked for the Birmingham to Manchester scheme would instead be pumped into other transport schemes.
Projects identified in the 40-page Network North blueprint included new rail connections, tram line extensions and road upgrades. But a Mirror probe reveals many of the schemes had already been announced, others were completed years earlier and many are not even in the North.
Quizzed about the plan and scrapping HS2 today, the Prime Minister did not deny that “many” of the projects “have been announced before and will not be implemented for many, many years”. But he insisted: “What we’re doing is going to be better for our country. You keep using the word ‘scrap’ but what we’re doing is replacing HS2 with something that’s going to benefit far more people in far more places and far quicker. Every penny that would have been spent on this project - £36bn - is going to be reinvested in every form of transport, not just heavy rail, and in every part of our country.”
Money for Tory heartlands
OF the £36billion diverted from HS2’s now-axed Manchester leg and announced in the Network North plan, hundreds of millions of pounds will be spent in traditional Tory heartlands outside the region.
“We are providing £610million to ensure delivery of 39 schemes in the East, South East and South West of England, including the A38 in Somerset, the A259 from Bognor Regis to Southampton and the A10 between Ely and Cambridge. In addition, we are launching a roads fund worth more than £1bn for new roads in these regions,” says the document. “We will solve one of the perennial bottlenecks on the corridor to Dover by fixing the Brenley Corner on the A2.”
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The A2 runs from London to Kent and is plagued by delays, so easing congestion on the route will be welcome in Kent, where all but one of the 17 MPs are Tories. The blueprint also boasts of “£290m funding to ensure the delivery of 14 road schemes across the South East, among them the A259 between Bognor Regis and Littlehampton”. The local MP for the two West Sussex seaside towns is veteran Conservative minister Nick Gibb.
Drivers will find it easier to get to Littlehampton on the South Coast, not in the North (Getty Images/EyeEm)Pothole budget a fraction of what's needed
Billions of pounds fill in potholes was announced as HS2 to the North was axed.
A “record investment of £8.3bn to fix the blight of potholes on roads up and down the country” was promised in Network North. Such a move would “improve everyday local journeys for people”, it added.
If tackling potholes sounded like a good idea this week, it did six years ago too when the 2017 Tory manifesto pledged: “We will do more to improve the quality of road surfaces, filling potholes – especially in residential areas”. And in December 2019 when the Conservatives’ election manifesto vowed: “We will launch the biggest ever pothole-filling programme.”
The Prime Minister has inspected potholes so knows they're a problem (PA)Earlier this year, the Asphalt Industry Alliance’s annual local authority road maintenance report revealed the total amount needed To bring crater-plagued local roads up to scratch in England and Wales was £14bn.
Beeching reversal pledge already unravelling
“Reopening Beeching lines to reconnect areas like County Durham, Burton, Stocksbridge and Waverley” was another commitment in the document.
Today, the Government’s pledge to reopen Co Durham’s Leamside Line, which closed in 1964, had already unravelled with Transport Minister Richard Holden admitting the Tories were only “committed to looking into it”. For decades politicians of all stripes have blasted cuts triggered by the 1963 study, The Reshaping of British Railways, drawn up by the then chairman of British Railways, Richard Beeching. About 5,000 miles of track and more than 2,300 stations were closed.
Richard Beeching's report is still being dissected 60 years later (Daily Herald)Four years ago, the 2019 Conservative election manifesto pledged that “to help communities across the country, we will restore many of the Beeching lines”. In January 2020, then Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced a £500million government fund to help restore historic railway lines closed after the Beeching Report.
The money was earmarked for feasibility studies about which routes could be restored. He said at the time: "Investing in transport links is essential to levelling-up access to opportunities across the country, ensuring our regions are better connected, local economies flourish and more than half a century of isolation is undone."
Road to nowhere
The Prime Minister promised to upgrade a series of main roads.
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Most of these projects were in the future pipeline of schemes delayed just six months ago for up to five years until after 2030. Projects hit by delays included improving the A1 between Doncaster and Darrington; the A5 between Hinckley and Tamworth; and the M6 Junctions 19 to 21a Knutsford to Croft, J2 and J15 Potteries southern access.
Multi-millionaire Mr Sunak filling up someone else's car at a petrol station (HM Treasury / BEEM)A deadline for whether to grant permissions for the A1 in Northumberland upgrade has been pushed back four times until June next year - two years and eight months after ministers received a vital planning report. The Government was handed a study on the dualling of the road between Morpeth and Ellingham in October 2021.
Legally, a decision should have been made within three months. But the Tories kept extending the deadline to respond - and it will now be next summer before a decision is made, unless there is another delay.
Vow to build a line which has existed for nine years
Some Tory activists and other guests attending the Conservative Party conference flew to Manchester because of rail strikes.
Many of those air passengers took the Metrolink tram from the airport to the city centre - so were surprised when the Network North plan suggested using a slice of a £4bn pot to extend “the Manchester Metrolink to Heywood, Bolton, Wigan and Manchester Airport”. The line to the airport opened in 2014 - nine years ago.
The Metrolink tram already runs to Manchester Airport, which may come as a surprise to the report authors (Sean Hansford)It is understood that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who was among those who flew to the city for the Tory jamboree, was driven from the airport to the conference hotel and did not ride the tram. Red-faced officials were forced to clarify that the document was actually floating the idea of extending the track to Terminal 2. Currently, the service only stops at Terminal 1.
Will Leeds finally get a metro system?
The plan includes a pledge for “investing over £2billion for a brand new rail station and line connection for Bradford to give a 30-minute journey to Manchester via Huddersfield”.
Boosted links between Bradford and Manchester have been promised as part of Northern Powerhouse Rail in three consecutive Tory manifestos. The Network North plan said: “We will spend £2.5bn to fund in full the long-promised mass transit system in Leeds and West Yorkshire.” It added: “Leeds, for instance, is the largest city in Europe without a mass transit system.”
Will Leeds finally get a metro system? Who knows (Getty Images/iStockphoto)There was similar language in the 2019 Tory manifesto - four years ago - which said “Leeds is the largest city in Western Europe without a light rail or metro system”. The plan however failed to guarantee a metro system will be built, saying the cash “could create a transformative network of up to seven lines, which could eventually connect Leeds with Huddersfield, Wakefield, Bradford and Halifax”.
Off the buses
Funding “for hundreds of new local bus routes” through a “Bus Service Improvement Plans” was unveiled in Network North.
Rishi Sunak wrote in the foreword: “Buses are the most popular form of public transport, yet we spend three times as much on trains.” The Mirror told in August how Traffic Commissioners data show how services have halved under the Tories - including when he was Chancellor and then Prime Minister.
We couldn't find any pictures of Mr Sunak on a bus so here's one of a different Tory PM who famously used that method of a transport for a few weeks in spring 2016 (PA)There were a total of 17,394 registered bus routes in 2010 but just 8,781 remain. Some 2,160 services were lost in just the last year alone. The West Midlands - a Key Red Wall battleground at the looming general election - was the hardest hit region.
The number of registered routes has plunged from 2,221 to 702 since 2010 - a drop of more than two thirds. The number of services has fallen by 52% in the North West, 50% in the North East, 45% in the East, 43% in the West and 29% in the South East. Some of the decline in registrations may have been due to services merging or routes being altered.
Tories 'not quite involved in the detail', admits Tory
Some £1.5billion was allocated for the new East Midlands City Region - a slice of which could be used “to extend the Nottingham Tram system to serve Gedling and Clifton South”, according to Network North.
However, the line to Clifton South already exists - and has for eight years. Journeys take 21 minutes. The Tory bungle was particularly embarrassing for the party’s backbench MP for Mansfield, Notts, who is also the leader of Nottingham County Council.
Ben Bradley, who was previously a Conservative Party vice-chairman, blamed officials and ministers based 123 miles in London for the mix-up. He told the BBC the announcement referred to an extension beyond Clifton to Ratcliffe-on-Soar and East Midlands Airport.
Ben Bradley blamed “Westminster not being quite involved in the detail” (PA)Worryingly for those interested in how the Government will spend £36bn of taxpayers’ money, Mr Bradley said it was a case of “Westminster not being quite involved in the detail”.