Rural Communities: Government Support Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Helen Morgan
Main Page: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)Department Debates - View all Helen Morgan's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Rural Communities: Government Support
Helen Morgan Excerpts(1 month ago)
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Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Murrison.
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) on making an excellent opening speech. Indeed, because it was so excellent and covered most of the issues I would have liked to cover, and because we have very little time, I will home in on three issues.
The first is public transport, which my hon. Friend the Member for Ely and East Cambridgeshire (Charlotte Cane) also addressed. Shropshire has lost 63% of its bus miles since 2015, compared with a national average of 19%. This is the biggest issue for people who live in my constituency, particularly young people who cannot see their friends or access part-time work and, often, further education. Yet the revenue allocation for Shropshire under the bus service improvement plan is only £2.5 million. Public transport is a massive issue for us, and I urge the Minister to consider whether it is possible to reconsider that allocation.
Poor local authority funding has an impact on cultural opportunities for people in rural areas, including activities such as grassroots sport. For example, Greenfields in Market Drayton is a woefully inadequate sports facility for a growing town of more than 10,000 people. Essentially, the council cannot afford to improve the facility. It has great plans, but it does not have any money to implement them because local councils are so badly underfunded.
The cuts to the rural services delivery grant has cost Shropshire £9 million. Shropshire is much bigger than Greater Manchester, with people spread evenly across the county at about one person per hectare, so the cost of delivering services far exceeds the cost in an urban area. Will the Minister examine how we value the cost of services when funding local councils, because we are in danger of leaving rural councils critically underfunded compared with their urban counterparts.