On Thursday, Richard hosted Simon Blanchflower CBE, the CEO of East West Rail (EWR) and a number of senior members of the EWR team, on a walk along the proposed alignments of Route E through his constituency of North East Bedfordshire. At each stop along the route, Richard was joined by local parish councillors and Borough councillors who were able to highlight concerns on behalf of the residents in their parishes.
Richard Fuller, MP for North East Bedfordshire, said:
Last month I invited Mr Blanchflower to 'walk the route' of Route E through North East Bedfordshire. I wanted him to see the impact on the environment and communities first-hand. I was born in Bedford and have been the MP for both the town of Bedford and for North East Bedfordshire and even so I have still found it extremely useful to visit the affected parishes in my constituency to help visualise the impact of the proposed rail line.
I was pleased that Simon Blanchflower took up my invitation. The visit gave a platform to local councillors who all did a fabulous job highlighting concerns and suggesting amendments. They had prepared a number of informative and well-produced handouts together with carefully selected viewpoints to maximise the impact of their messages.
My thanks to all who put in so much effort to make their respective cases, delivered their arguments in a persuasive but polite manner and ensured that the tight timelines of the schedule were met.
Mr Blanchflower was joined on the visit by Strategy & Sponsorship Director, Will Gallagher, and Engagement Manager, Jordi Beascoechea. The Department for Transport was also represented by Dr Cath Terry, EWR Deputy Director at the DfT.
Richard added:
The next step is for me to meet with EWR to study the costings that changed so dramatically at the end of the initial consultation, resulting in route E becoming the most financially-viable option. These costings continue to generate a lot of suspicion and concern, so it is important that EWR show full transparency of the process and factors that underpin these figures.
A summary video of the visit can be watched here.
