Budget debate - MP fights for new station, hospital improvements and bypass

Local MP Gideon Amos has vowed to keep fighting for Wellington’s new railway station – despite a ministerial meeting on the project being cancelled.

Speaking in the Budget debate in Parliament yesterday (Monday), he said news that the planned talks with Rail Minister, Lord Hendy, had been postponed was “an alarming development.”

Mr Amos told the Commons: 

“The opening of Wellington and Cullompton stations is an absolute priority for my constituency.

No other project is so close to the end of its detailed design and has such a strong benefit-cost ratio – 3.67, according to Treasury figures.

The knock-on benefits for housing, transport, employment and investment are huge. Sadly, however, the project is on hold. 

With 2% inflation on a £25 million project, it has cost us £1,600 every day since the pause in July. 

The Chancellor told me from the Dispatch Box in July that Wellington station will go ahead, and I hope I will not be disappointed.”

Mr Amos also said: 

“Last week’s Budget and its investment in the National Health Service is, of course, welcomed by the Liberal Democrats, just as we welcome the clawing back of money for carers - where, in many cases, the Government made mistakes - is finally being addressed. The raising of the earnings limit is also very welcome.”

He added that people in Taunton, and across Somerset, were waiting to hear about Musgrove Park Hospital:

“Temporary buildings built for the US Army in 1940 still serve as its maternity unit. In the summer, 30° heat causes staff to faint, and rain seeps through holes in the roof during the rest of the year.

We are waiting to hear whether that project will make it into the £3.1 billion investment plan, as we hope it will. The hospital needs to know so that it can plan.
 

I recognise that the government are seeking to provide investment certainty and stability of economic policy, which is something we have not seen in this country in recent years.
 

That aim, at least, is a world away from the empty stunts of the previous Conservative government, who promised Taunton a whole new hospital, which was not founded on any kind of reality.
 

That was a disgrace, and we need a more stable investment landscape.”

Mr Amos also pointed out that the Government had saved £2.5 billion by scrapping two big road projects in Somerset. 

“This means that the Henlade and Thornfalcon bypass really must happen,” he added.