12/04/2010

Sir George Young, "The Bicycling Baronet" came to Worcester today by train and visited Foregate Street Station where local Councillors showed him their plans for improving the station and the transport links around it.

He also visited the Diglis development to hear about the Connect 2 project to improve walking and cycling routes around the River Severn, the bid for a  new crossing was backed by the Conservative City and County Councils and Sustrans, of which he is a patron.

As a former Transport Minister and one of the most senior Parliamentarians in the Commons, Sir George was eager to back Robin Walker's campaign to deliver better transport links for the city. As a former housing minister, he was also interested to see how affordable housing had been integrated into the brownfield development at Diglis.

Robin Walker said

"It is fantastic to have a distinguished Shadow Cabinet member of George's calibre backing my campaign. I want Worcester to be a great place to live and work and that means getting transport right. In thirteen years, Labour have failed to resolve our infrastructure challenges and the only progress has been delivered by our conservative City Council. Now is the time to get an MP who will work with the council to get Worcester moving."

"We need to make more of Foregate Street station as an entry point to the city. Living just around the corner, I am delighted that this is a priority for phase one of the County's transport strategy. Whilst Labour has failed on delivering affordable housing nationally, the Conservatives have shown  that it can be done locally. We need more brownfield projects like Diglis and less of Labour's plans to build all over our precious Worcestershire countryside."