MP Barclay backs rail to be central plank of Wisbech transport needs
North East Cambridgeshire MP Steve Barclay has voiced concerns that a transport scheme for Wisbech will focus on roads, rather than trying to restore the rail link to the town.
The Wisbech Access Scheme involves £10.5 million of Government money to improve local transport, with a public consultation by Fenland District Council (that closed on November 27) carried out into spending.
However, Barclay said residents were asked to give views on a transport package he described as “flawed”. In a statement, he said: “The consultation suggests that if this package is not approved, we risk losing entirely the £10.5m. Yet the Government has allowed until 2021 for this money to be spent, and so there is no need for the money to be lost should we pause this consultation.”
The consultation document states that “The Wisbech Access Strategy is a road-based transport project”, he said, adding: “Yet the Government has not placed any condition on this funding to restrict it to road-based schemes. As such, this statement is not correct.
“In addition, the Government has made clear that ‘some of the £10.5m’ could be spent on Wisbech Rail - a key transport scheme many constituents support. It could also be spent on progressing a section of the A47. Yet these options have not been included in the consultation, nor does any work appear to have been undertaken to question the Network Rail cost estimates on the rail scheme to enable it to be included in this funding.”
Barclay said that Secretary of State for Business Greg Clark wrote in a letter that some of the £10.5m could be spent on project development for the railway.
He added: “It is also repeatedly stated by the Local Enterprise Partnership that the business case for Wisbech Rail is not strong enough, despite the Rail Minister confirming to me that he regards the estimated costs as being ‘goldplated’ by Network Rail, including level crossing costs which exceed what the Rail regulator requires.”
A DfT spokesman told RAIL there were no restrictions on what the money could be spent on, and that it was for localities to determine.
The line from March to Wisbech is mothballed, but has been the subject of studies and has been investigated by the Campaign for Better Transport and Office of Rail and Road.