03/03/2010 by Steve Barclay.

Not a joke, but an example of how your money is wasted by some trade unions.  The answer depends on which part of the country you are in.  In some areas, the RMT have restrictive trade union practices which mean a fixed gang of four people must respond to any job.  So even if very minor work involving one person is required, a fixed gang of four people still have to be sent.  Elsewhere flexible work gangs are permitted.  So two people can be sent to minor jobs, one to do the work and one to act as a train look out for safety.

Likewise trade union restrictions means that Network Rail must have stand-by emergency crews at Kings Cross station and also at Euston, even though they are less than one mile apart.  It would make more sense to have emergency crews located where they could respond most quickly to problems.  These were just two of the issues highlighted at a meeting this morning with Iain Coucher, Chief Executive of Network Rail.  I was also struck at how little incentive there is for Network Rail to get more freight on the railways - they receive just £48 million in revenue from freight against £3.6 billion revenue from passengers.

An issue we discussed was Network Rail’s plans for rural lines, including how people now commute further by train.  In the 1990s, the majority of commuters were not prepared to commute more than 45 minutes by train, when adding on the rest of their journey at either end.  Now that train element of the journey has increased up to 1 hour 15 minutes, after which there is a significant drop off in commuters.  This is not a surprise, as the increased number of travellers from Littleport, Manea and those driving from the constituency to King’s Lynn or Peterborough highlights the willingness now to commute further.

It was positive to hear of Network Rail’s plans for Peterborough and Cambridge, but also frustrating that the focus seems to be almost exclusively on city to city journeys with little investment in rural areas where significant house building has taken place.  Whilst Network Rail have access to cheap capital, rural lines take time to pay and so there is little short term incentive for them to open up more rural lines.  Cambridgeshire is the fastest growing county, and it is telling that Network Rail have no plans to spend any money in North East Cambridgeshire at all.  I raised the issue of extending Whittlesea station, and connecting Wisbech and Chatteris, and Iain Councher’s team kindly agreed to follow this up.  Improvements to the journey from Cambridge and Peterborough will help locally, but we need to be able to get to these stations in the first place.

Overall it was a interesting and positive meeting, and hopefully the start of a constructive dialogue on how we improve train transport to and from the constituency.

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19/09/2009 by Steve Barclay.

Something which I thought would be straightforward is providing anything but, given the capacity for bureaucracy to find reasons to be unhelpful to our local businesses. 

In previous blogs I have mentioned my desire to support businesses in Fenland and East Cambridgeshire by helping them to put up tourist signs.  Local attractions are often missed because those travelling through the area, and even sometimes people I chat to living locally, do not know what attractions are nearby.  One of our local businesses has been in touch to say they have been quoted £5,000 by the Highways Agency for one brown tourist sign.  Why should it cost so much?  Even more bizarre is that even if they pay this sum they cannot have a sign at the moment as new applicants are not allowed to apply for a sign in their first year of business.  Surely the first year is a critical time when the business needs to raise its profile and attract new customers? 

Another business in Fenland has just been told they do not have enough visitors to justify a sign.  Yet one of the reasons for wanting a sign is to get more visitors - without the sign this rule becomes an even higher hurdle.  Rural businesses often do not get as many visitors as attractions in cities - using the same visitor numbers test fails to take this into account.  Add to this the complexity of a host of different signage policies which results from us being on the border of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire, as well as near to Peterborough with its unitary status, and businesses face even more obstacles.  A Fenland business might be in Cambridgeshire but want to put the road sign 300 yards down the road which is over the border in Norfolk.

Thankfully Fenland DC is keen to see a solution and is working with me on this.  Is it not bizarre though that during a recession when we need as many jobs locally as possible, our local businesses cannot put up tourist signs?  Why should they have to waste so much time on these inflexible rules when they are paying tax to keep these bodies going, and have plenty of challenges running and growing their business?  We need to listen and respond to our businesses more, and I hope I can help them achieve what should be a simple request.  At the moment, it feels like I have delivered little progress for them on this.

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28/03/2008 by Steve Barclay.

A focus on road and rail today started with a site visit to Network Rail’s Whitemoor Yard. Once again the weather is awful - I need to try and arrange these site visits in the summer!  Fortunately we are welcomed with a coffee in the site office as we go through the aerial maps of the yard, and get an update on the recent residents meeting.  Am keen to discuss what jobs will be created.  It is good to hear that phase two will include some new work and also a number of existing jobs being brought in-house.

After a tour of the yard, including a visit to the control tower, head over to the association office for a meeting with Andrew Walker and Graham Chappell.  Andrew’s 9 year old daughter Charlotte was tragically drowned near Bedlam Bridge when the car she was travelling in left the road.   It is a very sad meeting and important that we work together to address the safety concerns around Fen roads.  Cambs Times Editor John Elworthy is also at the meeting, and Graham takes Malcolm Moss MP and myself through the compelling data that he has collated.  Malcolm offers to follow up a number of points, including writing to the County Council for accurate and up to date data on the number of accidents in recent years.

After the meeting, I travelled up to Wisbech to meet Father John Doman.  Father John is concerned about the issue of homelessness and feels that we need to do much more to tackle this.  I agree and offer to help.  I will report back in the future so watch this space. Then it is on to Wisbech St Mary to help our by-election candidate Phil Wait with some canvassing.  A great response for Phil again - he is well known and liked locally.  It bodes well for polling day next week. 

Posted in Wisbech St. Mary, Malcolm Moss MP, Road & Rail, Cambs Times | No Comments »