The opposition has lambasted the Government for committing more than £1bn towards a glut of local transport projects in the run up to the election.
In the past couple of weeks, the Department for Transport has announced more than £600m for Birmingham’s highways PFI scheme and hundreds of millions of pounds towards Leeds’ trolley bus scheme, Bristol’s bus rapid transit system, Liverpool’s edge Lane project and the Tees Valley quality bus partnership agreement.An Olympics road project in Weymouth and the ‘Pennine Lancashire’ public transport scheme are among a number of others to have won funding all over England.
But Theresa Villiers, shadow transport secretary, questioned ‘the timing of these announcements’.
She said: ‘For the past 13 years Labour have ignored local transport needs across the country.
‘People will be asking why it has taken the Labour Government until the eve of a General Election campaign to realise that local transport infrastructure across the country has been stuck in the slow lane for too long. Labour need to be straight with people about how they are going to pay for their pre-election giveaways.’
Norman Baker, transport spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said it was ‘somewhat democratic’ to tie the hands of a future government.
But a DfT spokesperson said: ‘Decisions to approve local transport schemes are based on whether they are value for money, financially viable and meet the needs of local people.
‘The timing will depend on many factors, some of which are entirely out of the control of the department, for example the time it takes for local authorities to undertake the necessary statutory procedures or procurement exercises.’
