Richard Fuller has welcomed Tuesday’s announcement by the Chancellor that funding for East West Rail will be made available.

In a powerful Autumn Statement, which focused on supporting growth while maintaining the budget discipline that keeps our interest rates low, the Chancellor announced that a new East West Rail link will go ahead.

Restoring the rail link between Bedford and Oxford (via Milton Keynes) is the key first step in the East West rail project, which ultimately aims to add Cambridge, Ipswich and Norwich to the line, and is supported by MPs from all along the proposed route. The project forms part of the Government’s investment in infrastructure to boost growth, and will create 12,000 new jobs in the region.

“Future increases in fuel duty should be reconsidered to help family budgets” was the message in Parliament from Richard Fuller this week. A parliamentary debate had been called asking for fairer prices at the pumps, after over 100,000 people had signed an e-petition asking for the topic to be discussed.

Richard said that it was unacceptable to force through further rapid increases in duty when the average family budget is already under pressure. Richard said: “The Coalition government needs to be fairer to motorists than the last government and with 10 percent of family budgets going on petrol, stopping further increases would be a major help.”

Earlier this week, Richard lent his support for investment in the East West Rail link, arguing that it would give a lift to job creation in Bedford and Kempston. The debate was called to urge the government to set aside £250m for the Bedford to Oxford link in the 2014-19 rail plans.

Richard commented: “A regular fast rail service to Oxford, linked with a direct route to Central Milton Keynes, will reinforce Bedford’s position as a natural hub for the rail network, further improving our attractiveness for new businesses and bringing more, local jobs.”

Handing over 500 bypass petition signatures to Jan Steel of Bedford Borough Council

While others talked, I collected over 500 signatures in support of the Borough Council’s petition for Government funding to complete the bypass.  Thank you to all of you who signed and joined the effort for this long overdue improvement.  I believe that we need to put pressure on this Government to get them to help finish the job otherwise congestion will get even worse across town.