Oral Answers to Questions

Graham P Jones Excerpts

Thursday 5th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

I expect that we will complete plans for airspace modernisation over the coming months. There will be a rolling programme in the early 2020s, and I expect details of that plan to be made clear, probably in 2019.

[Graham P. Jones (Hyndburn) (Lab)]

4. What assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the M65 from Colne to Keighley.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Jesse Norman)]

Highways England has gathered evidence about the performance of the strategic road network, and future pressures on it, to inform the decisions we have taken as part of the second road investment strategy. This process of evidence gathering and public consultation has taken into consideration the idea of extending the M65.

[Graham P. Jones]

The Secretary of State has invested in the idea of a rail link between Liverpool and Hull, connecting the east and west through the central low Pennines. Do the Government accept that a road link would be complementary? It would go through deprived communities and provide a huge economic uplift. Do the Government recognise that this is the great northern powerhouse project?

[Jesse Norman]

As the hon. Gentleman will be aware, we are already investing £1.5 billion in road systems in the north-west. Of course the M65 is, in a way, a legendary road because it ends in a carpark, and no one thinks that is a satisfactory arrangement. I would welcome a further conversation with him about this, but the situation is far from straightforward.