Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve transport infrastructure between Wakefield and Dewsbury.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is committed, as part of its Levelling Up agenda, to improving transport connectivity both within and between, the towns and cities of the North. In West Yorkshire, we are providing £317m from our Transforming Cities Fund and access to the £4.2bn Intra-City Transport Fund to improve transport infrastructure between Wakefield, Leeds, Dewsbury and Huddersfield alongside £49.6m to maintain local highways and improve local transport infrastructure. In addition, local authorities in West Yorkshire will be able to bid for transport projects for the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund, launched at the Budget 2021.
The Government’s Road and Rail Investment Strategies are improving strategic infrastructure between Wakefield, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester through our £589m commitment to upgrade and electrify the Transpennine main line between Leeds, Huddersfield and Manchester, and investment on the M1 between Junctions 39-42 between Wakefield and Leeds, now open to traffic. The second Road Investment Strategy (RIS2), published in 2020, also included funding for Highways England to develop proposals to upgrade M1 Junctions 35A-39. If funded for construction by the next RIS (starting in 2025), this would provide extra capacity on this stretch of the M1 and would allow more drivers to travel between Wakefield and Sheffield.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve transport infrastructure between Wakefield and Huddersfield.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is committed, as part of its Levelling Up agenda, to improving transport connectivity both within and between, the towns and cities of the North. In West Yorkshire, we are providing £317m from our Transforming Cities Fund and access to the £4.2bn Intra-City Transport Fund to improve transport infrastructure between Wakefield, Leeds, Dewsbury and Huddersfield alongside £49.6m to maintain local highways and improve local transport infrastructure. In addition, local authorities in West Yorkshire will be able to bid for transport projects for the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund, launched at the Budget 2021.
The Government’s Road and Rail Investment Strategies are improving strategic infrastructure between Wakefield, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester through our £589m commitment to upgrade and electrify the Transpennine main line between Leeds, Huddersfield and Manchester, and investment on the M1 between Junctions 39-42 between Wakefield and Leeds, now open to traffic. The second Road Investment Strategy (RIS2), published in 2020, also included funding for Highways England to develop proposals to upgrade M1 Junctions 35A-39. If funded for construction by the next RIS (starting in 2025), this would provide extra capacity on this stretch of the M1 and would allow more drivers to travel between Wakefield and Sheffield.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve transport infrastructure between Wakefield and Leeds.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Government is committed, as part of its Levelling Up agenda, to improving transport connectivity both within and between, the towns and cities of the North. In West Yorkshire, we are providing £317m from our Transforming Cities Fund and access to the £4.2bn Intra-City Transport Fund to improve transport infrastructure between Wakefield, Leeds, Dewsbury and Huddersfield alongside £49.6m to maintain local highways and improve local transport infrastructure. In addition, local authorities in West Yorkshire will be able to bid for transport projects for the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund, launched at the Budget 2021.
The Government’s Road and Rail Investment Strategies are improving strategic infrastructure between Wakefield, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester through our £589m commitment to upgrade and electrify the Transpennine main line between Leeds, Huddersfield and Manchester, and investment on the M1 between Junctions 39-42 between Wakefield and Leeds, now open to traffic. The second Road Investment Strategy (RIS2), published in 2020, also included funding for Highways England to develop proposals to upgrade M1 Junctions 35A-39. If funded for construction by the next RIS (starting in 2025), this would provide extra capacity on this stretch of the M1 and would allow more drivers to travel between Wakefield and Sheffield.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much money has been spent on upgrading roads with provisions for cyclists in (a) Wakefield, (b) West Yorkshire and and (c) England.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
On the 9th May 2020 the Government announced a £2 billion five-year package of funding for cycling and walking. This included a £225 million Active Travel Fund for English Local Authorities in the current financial year to enable them to deliver new safe cycling and walking measures in their areas. West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) was allocated over £12.5 million of this funding. Decisions on how much of this funding to spend in which parts of its region are matters for WYCA. The Spending Review in 2020 confirmed that over £250 million of dedicated funding will be made available for cycling and walking in 2021/22, and decisions on how the rest of the £2 billion will be spent will be taken as part of the next multi-year Spending Review.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of journeys undertaken by foot in Wakefield constituency.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
On the 9th May the Government announced a £2bn package of funding for cycling and walking. This included a £225 million Active Travel Fund from which West Yorkshire Combined Authority has been allocated around £12,500,000 this financial year. The Department has also funded the development of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan which includes plans for a Core Walking Zone in Wakefield city centre.
Decisions on the allocation of the rest of the £2 billion will be made during the life of this Parliament. Much of this funding will be provided to local authorities to deliver local cycling and walking plans.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to encourage electric vehicle uptake in (a) Wakefield and (b) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
We are investing over £1.8bn? to help people buy zero emission vehicles and accelerate the roll out of charging infrastructure across the whole of the UK.
Through our Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS), businesses, charities and the wider public sector can get grants of up to £350 per socket for installing up to 40 charging sockets for their employees and fleets. Under the WCS Wakefield has received funding of £37,815 for 77 sockets and West Yorkshire has received a total of £227,792 funding for 495 sockets. Local authorities across the country are also able to take advantage of the On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS), which assists them with the cost of installing chargepoints on residential streets. Calderdale Council have received funding through the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme for 13 chargepoints across the district, while Leeds City Council have also received funding for 15 chargepoints through the Scheme. Over 13,000 ultra-low and zero emission vehicles are on the road in west Yorkshire (including over 700 in Wakefield), many of which will have received funding from the Government’s Plug-in Grant Schemes.
In addition, through the Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme the Government has provided £1,770,472.50 to First West Yorkshire and £617,000 to West Yorkshire Combined Authority to deliver 14 electric buses and associated recharging infrastructure. West Yorkshire Combined Authority has been awarded £1,980,000 through the Ultra Low Emission Vehicle Taxi Infrastructure scheme to deliver 66 rapid and 22 fast chargepoints for taxis and private hire vehicles.
More generally, the roll out of rapid charging is an opportunity to remove range anxiety for electric vehicle drivers across the roads network which the Government will do by:
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many (a) electric vehicles, (b) petrol fuelled vehicles and (c) diesel fuelled vehicles are registered to addresses in Wakefield constituency.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
At the end of June 2020, vehicles licensed to an address in the Wakefield constituency comprised (a) 134 battery electric vehicles, (b) 27,773 petrol vehicles, and (c) 27,166 diesel vehicles.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to encourage cycling as a means of transport in Wakefield constituency since the covid-19 outbreak began.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
On the 9th May the Government announced a £2bn package of funding for cycling and walking. This included a £225 million Emergency Active Travel Fund from which West Yorkshire Combined Authority was allocated £2,513,000 in the first tranche, and indicatively allocated a further £10,053,000 from tranche 2. The Department will be confirming final allocations for tranche 2 of the fund shortly.
Decisions on the allocation of the rest of the £2 billion will be for the Spending Review in due course. The majority of this funding will be provided to local authorities in order to deliver local cycling and walking plans.
Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much of the additional £30 million in bus funding announced on 3 April 2020 will be spent in (a) Wakefield and (b) West Yorkshire.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The West Yorkshire Combined Authority, which includes Wakefield, has been provided with £1,086,414 from the additional £30 million bus fund.