Treat Liverpool same as London says South Liverpool Councillor. (Garston and Halewood Liberal Democrats)

Garston and Halewood Liberal Democrats <info@garstonld.org.uk>

Treat Liverpool same as London says South Liverpool Councillor.

October 14, 2007 12:00 AM

Cressington Councillor Peter Millea is calling on the Government not to discriminate against Liverpool and Merseyside on public transport spending.

A motion to the City Council meeting, which takes place later this week (Wednesday 17th October) reads:

This City Council notes that Her Majesty's Government has already contributed £400 million to the Crossrail project, before any planning approvals or completion of financial packages were made by the public and private sectors in London.

Council requests that Liverpool and Merseyside are treated the same, and requests a similar sum of money for the Merseytram project to be reintroduced, given that planning approval is already extant in Liverpool and Knowsley, and both Councils were supportive of Merseytravel's plans for the Tram.

Council believes that the Government's reluctance to fund light or heavy rail schemes outside of London - 6 have been rejected by Labour - evidenced by the refusal to honour its commitment to funding the £170 million it promised, demonstrates that this Government cares more about the south east than economically poorer areas such as Merseyside.

Council recalls that despite the agreement of Merseyside local authorities - Liverpool, Knowsley and Merseytravel - to contribute their required share, the Government failed to do so, and then blamed the Councils for failing to write a blank cheque - which would have been illegal.

The Government boast that the Crossrail scheme has been founded on a "strong economy" must be one which applies throughout the United Kingdom, and that same strong economy can ensure that Liverpool gets its fair share.

Council therefore requests that the Chief Executive writes to the appropriate Government Ministers drawing their attention to the contents of this motion.