Council backs campaign for Northern budget

The leader of Rossendale Council has joined other leaders from the North of England in calling on government to deliver on commitments to boost spending on infrastructure.

Councillor Alyson Barnes lent her support to the Transport for the North’s “Northern Budget” campaign which aims to secure billions of pounds for the region in the next spending review.

The Council is committed to lobbying hard and bringing in funding to improve transport links in the borough. A key priority of the Council is to restore the borough’s commuter rail link.

Councillor Barnes said:

“Of course the North needs more money. It is indisputable that there has been massive under investment in the North compared to the South. The North is being held back because not enough funding has been put into transport infrastructure.

“I fully back this campaign and will continue to make the case that Rossendale needs a share of it.

“Indeed, this week I have been highlighting the problems of getting around East Lancashire because transport links are not good enough.

“In Rossendale, this Council is doing all it can to lobby for the money needed to improve local transport which in turn will boost our economy.

“We have a good track record of getting funding and people are benefiting from some of the decisions we have made. But clearly much more needs to be done as today has shown.

“We were obviously disappointed that the rail link was not on the list of priority projects but work is continuing to make it a reality.”