Christmas Adjournment

Lord Stunell Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Sir Andrew Stunell (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

I am delighted to take part in this Christmas Adjournment debate. The right hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Sir John Randall) said that it was his last, and it will be my last as well. I think it is also my first—I may have been missing something all these years, but I am delighted to take part now. I will start by wishing Members and staff here a happy Christmas, as well as members of my family and office staff in my constituency who work exceptionally hard on my behalf.

I wish to raise two topics. The first is the Hazel Grove bypass, the A555. I raised this in my maiden speech in 1997, so it is not an issue that has just arisen on the street corner. There is a bit of history to this because back in the 1930s a dotted line on a map showed that there would be a bypass around Hazel Grove. Plenty has happened since I came to the House in 1997, and the most significant event was the south-east Manchester multi-modal study, which was an attempt to analyse the transport needs of the southern part of the Greater Manchester conurbation. Its report stated that improvements were needed to rail and bus services, cycle provision and also for pedestrians, and that that was essential if we were to reduce pollution and congestion in the area. The report went on to state that even when all those things had been done, a Hazel Grove bypass would still be needed. Given that the study was set up to prove the opposite of that, it confirmed what I and my constituents had been saying and campaigning on for years.

For eight years after the publication of the south-east Manchester multi-modal study—commonly called SEMMMS—there were frequent attempts to get action on that road. I led a number of public campaigns and took every opportunity to raise the matter in the House and with Ministers. Not a lot happened in those eight years in practical terms, but I am delighted that much progress has been made since May 2010—I do not choose that date arbitrarily; it is a result of the coalition Government’s approach and the way they were ready to listen to the case put forward by my constituents. There has been a consultation and 70% of my constituents supported the road, with only 10% opposing it. The first phase of the road now has full funding and planning permission, and hearings on compulsory purchase have been held. The contractor has been appointed and I am delighted that phase 1 will start on site in March next year.

Today I am speaking in favour of phase 2 of the bypass. I am delighted about phase 1, which mainly runs through the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Cheadle (Mark Hunter). He and I stood shoulder to shoulder on this campaign throughout those years, and the first phase will run from the A6 in Hazel Grove via Woodford to the Manchester airport interchange with the M56. However, for my constituents in Hazel Grove, Romiley, Bredbury and Woodley, the traffic, pollution, congestion, heavy goods vehicles and pressure on their daily lives will not be lifted or reduced by phase 1. Phase 2 is needed, and I urge the Deputy Leader of the House to convey to Ministers elsewhere the fact that we need the next step and an update on SEMMMS. The Stockport metropolitan design team and engineers will have finished work on phase 1 by early next year, so from April onwards they will be ready to begin work on phase 2. My plea is simply for the necessary £300,000 to be allocated for that vital task.

My second point relates to a more immediate and perhaps smaller scale event that may have wide consequences. There was a catastrophic house fire in Kennett drive in Bredbury in my constituency. It took place in a house that was built just over 10 years ago on an estate of 60 or so homes of the same character. Unexpectedly, the fire spread from one house to another, until four homes were completely destroyed. I am happy to report that there was no loss of life, although one firefighter was injured putting out the blaze.

The issue has highlighted the failure in the expected performance of the fire protection of those homes. Of course, when a house catches fire it is likely that there will be damage to that home. However, the design of all homes in this country is intended to be such that a house fire will not spread to adjacent property, at least not before the fire brigade can get there and get it under control. On this occasion, it was unable to achieve that and four homes, consisting of a whole block, were completely destroyed. As you can imagine, Mr Deputy Speaker, the residents in the remaining homes are very concerned about the implications for their homes. I have been working intensively with them, the fire authority and others to see what needs to be done.

The opinion of the fire brigade, as expressed to me by its fire prevention officer, is that there was a breakdown in the construction, and that what is called technically the “fire stopping” was not properly in place, which led to the spread of the fire through what was a timber-framed building with brick cladding, making it unstoppable. I have had meetings with the National House Builders Confederation, which provided the building regulation control and the guarantee to householders on which they rely. I have studied the Building Research Establishment’s reports on fires in similar buildings and I am currently pushing the NHBC to extend its investigations on site to ensure that other homes do not suffer from the same fault of defective fire stopping. I am sure the Minister will understand that residents will not be satisfied until they know precisely what happened, and whether it is likely to happen to their homes as well.

There is a wider point here. This type of construction is very widely used in the United Kingdom. Clearly, a fault has been revealed that needs to be examined and dealt with at national level. I have, over several weeks, put in a request to Mr Speaker for a full Adjournment debate on this topic. I hope, by raising it today, that I may have caught your ear as well, Mr Deputy Speaker, with the possibility of exploring the issue more fully and properly. With that, I wish you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and others in the Chamber a very happy Christmas and a successful new year.