How long must North wait for answers, Mr Grayling?
FOUR MONTHS ago, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling was sent a polite letter by 10 MPs from the North East calling for new investment in the Tyne and Wear Metro which serves Newcastle and the surrounding area. Exactly four months later, they are still waiting for the courtesy of an acknowledgement, never mind a reply, from the Cabinet minister.
Frankly, I’m not surprised. After all, Mr Grayling is the cavalier Transport Secretary who told the North – via these columns – in August to sort out its own difficulties after downgrading pre-election plans to electrify two busy railway lines before snubbing last week’s Commons debate which was supposed to hold him to account for this decision, and the subsequent watering down of Transport for the North’s proposed powers.
Yet it is the latest insult that is, in fact, the most perturbing. Why? If Cabinet ministers are allowed to dodge their Parliamentary duties, and then ignore letters from MPs speaking up for concerned constituents, how can they be held to account?
Though some readers will find it ironic that is highlighting a lack of investment in Newcastle’s Metro system when cities like Leeds are bereft of a light rail system, the Department for Transport’s attitude, I venture, is symptomatic of a wider malaise – namely its reluctance to advance the Northern Powerhouse and provide parity of funding for the whole country.
Quick to fire off an email of complaint when this newspaper described Mr Grayling’s no-show in the Commons last week as a snub, what does it say when he can’t, after 130 days and counting, reply to the letter sent on July 17 by Gateshead MP Ian Mearns on behalf of his Labour colleagues?
I suspect the reason is that the 10 signatories were all Labour MPs and Mr Grayling is of the view that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown did not invest sufficient sums in the region’s infrastructure when in power. I sympathise. As I continue to make clear, successive governments are to blame. Yet it does not excuse such bad manners.
Given that Theresa May did stress the Government’s support for the Northern Powerhouse last month, and that levels of economic growth in the future are dependent on better transport links at a local and regional level, I can only assume the politician who masterminded her leadership campaign in the summer of 2016 was either asleep on the job – or too busy planning a second Crossrail line in London that will benefit his Epsom constituents amongst others.
I’ve now seen the letter that the aforementioned Mr Mearns sent on July 17, and again on September 12 (still no reply), before he handed a copy to local transport minister Jesse Norman who had the misfortune to deputise for the absent Mr Grayling in the Commons.
“We write as Tyne and Wear MPs regarding the need for investment in the Tyne and Wear Metro,” it begins. “The need to act is urgent: our constituents tell us the poor reliability of the life-expired Metro trains is causing problems for them on a daily basis, and we trust that like us you want to see the system preserved and expanded to new areas rather than crumbling away.” A fair concern.
Yet, with the rolling stock nearly 40 years old and becoming increasingly unreliable, time is clearly of the essence as commuters struggle to get to work on time. The signatories go on to note “the vague and non-committal responses of Ministers to our questions on this subject” in Parliament in July and ask why the DfT has not responded to a business case that it received from Metro’s operator Nexus “a full year ago” when Mr Grayling was first appointed. This sounds familiar to me.
“We therefore request an urgent meeting with you to discuss the Metro and the steps you plan to take... the Metro’s importance to residents, businesses and general daily life in our constituencies is too great to be put to one side,” it concluded. What’s so onerous, or troubling, about this last request?
Of course the Government needs to carefully consider all funding requests – it is not in a position to write a blank cheque – but I’m guessing that a response of sorts would have been more forthcoming if the subject was Mr Grayling’s beloved Crossrail 2.
Though there are no rules on the length of time it should take Ministers to respond to correspondence from MPs, four weeks – 28 days – appears to be reasonable from what I ascertain from Yorkshire backbenchers and it does not reflect well on the management, organisation and efficiency of the Department for Transport if it can’t achieve this. Even the antiquated Pacer carriages (buses converted into trains) here are swifter.
With 40 civil servants working at the DfT on North-related transport matters, don’t they realise that Newcastle and Gateshead will be hosting Sir Gary Verity’s Great Exhibition of the North next summer and visitors will be relying upon the Metro to get to various events?
And while it would be remiss not to point out Chris Grayling’s defence, namely this Government is investing more money in the North’s transport infrastructure than previous administrations, it does not excuse – or justify – his repeated snubs and a collective loss of confidence in his commitment to the area and his basic competence as a minister.