Oral Answers to Questions

Aaron Bell Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

I am delighted to help everybody travel through and beyond the hon. Gentleman’s constituency as quickly as possible. I would be happy to meet him or, probably more helpfully, to ask the Roads Minister to do so.

[Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)]

4. What steps his Department is taking to improve bus services in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency and (b) north Staffordshire.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Buses are at the heart of the Government’s transformative agenda and, with that, we have a new £220 million fund to make sure buses are working across our urban and rural areas. We are putting together the UK’s first long-term bus strategy.

[Aaron Bell]

Newcastle-under-Lyme is one of the largest towns in England without a train station. We also suffer from very heavy congestion on the roads into Stoke-on-Trent. Does the Minister agree, therefore, that Newcastle-under-Lyme, and north Staffordshire more widely, should be at the front of the queue for a new Superbus funding settlement?

[Ms Ghani]

My hon. Friend has made a stellar pitch for the new Superbus fund both today and previously in a Westminster Hall debate. It would be remiss of me to say anything at the moment. All the proposals are being assessed, and I assure him that the announcement will be made very soon.