Emma Hardy MP will raise a Point of Order in the House of Commons to ask why none of the Conservative Transport Ministers accepted her invitation to meet about the Castle Street Development.
Emma will raise the Point of Order in the House of Commons after contacting Conservative Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, on 17thJuly. The contact was made to ask Grayling to meet with Emma and Cllr Martin Mancey to discuss the proposed development consent order on Castle Street.
Emma received a reply (attached) from Jesse Norman, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, stating that the Department did not wish to meet at this time. The Department for Transport has 5 Ministers.
In the point of order, Emma will say “This is a massive discourtesy and is a huge insult to my constituency and neighbouring constituencies who have seen repeated delays to the Castle Street development. I seek your advice Mr Speaker about how I can get the Secretary of State to meet with me on this incredibly important issue to the local economy.”
Replying from the Chair, Speaker John Bercow stated that it was deeply unsatisfactory that the Department had taken two and a half months to reply to Emma on such an important issue and said that he hoped the Government would take note and organise a meeting in the near future.
Emma further commented “The fact that the Conservative Transport Ministers took two and a half months to reply to me and are point blank refusing to meet shows a complete lack of urgency to do something about transport, not just in Hull West and Hessle but in the whole north of England. Not only will they not find time to meet with me over such an important issue, they won’t even give me the courtesy of a reply. This just compounds the lack of concern that they showed in their recent policy announcement to provide just £100 million to fix all the roads in the North. This is just an insult and will not come anywhere close to fixing the transport issues that Northern England faces. Residents in Hull West and Hessle should rest assured that I won’t stop pushing the Government until work is finished on this extremely important issue for our local economy.”
