Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to take steps to help improve the (a) reliability and (b) frequency of rail services serving Chichester constituency.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There are no current plans to make changes to rail services serving Chichester constituency following on from significant changes earlier in the year.
Following a public consultation, a new West Coastway timetable was put in place from 2 June 2024. This redesigned the timetable for services in the Chichester area and doubled the number of trains towards Worthing and Brighton from two trains per hour to four trains per hour, creating a half-hourly service. This provides faster journey options towards Brighton and better spacing on the Southampton service.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has plans to help deliver railway infrastructure upgrades in Chichester constituency.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Chancellor has been clear about the state of the nation's finances and has launched a multi-year Spending Review. The Secretary of State has announced her intention to conduct a thorough review of the previous government's transport plans to ensure that our transport infrastructure portfolio drives economic growth and delivers value for money for taxpayers.
No specific infrastructure upgrades are being actively considered in the Chichester constituency at present. Any proposals to government for such upgrades should include the support of West Sussex County Council and Transport for the South East and outline the impacts to growth, employment and housing that the proposal would involve.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding her Department has provided for the repair of potholes in Chichester constituency.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government takes the condition of local roads very seriously and is committed to maintaining and renewing the local highway network. West Sussex County Council is the local highway authority for the Chichester constituency, and it is therefore responsible for the condition of its local network. In the current financial year the Department has provided a little over £19 million of highway maintenance funding to West Sussex County Council.
This Government has a commitment to enable local highway authorities in England to fix up to a million more potholes a year. At Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced an extra £500 million for local highway maintenance for the 2025/26 financial year, an increase of nearly 50% compared to the current financial year exceeding this Government’s manifesto commitment on repairing local roads. The Government will confirm funding allocations to English local highway authorities in due course.