Extract from end of day adjournment debate on Disabled Access: Thirsk Station - Jun 26
Thursday, 27 June 2019 08:43
Kevin Hollinrake (Thirsk and Malton) (Con):...I am grateful to my
right hon. Friend the Transport Secretary and the Minister, whom I
met to discuss these issues and our bid to the Access for All
funding programme. Access for All is providing £300 million of
additional funding to make 73 stations more accessible by 2024.
Unfortunately, Thirsk is not one of them. I felt that our campaign
was good, and was building up a head of steam. It had strong
support from Graham Meiklejohn...Request free trial
(Thirsk and Malton)
(Con):...I am grateful to my right hon. Friend the Transport
Secretary and the Minister, whom I met to discuss these issues and
our bid to the Access for All funding programme. Access for All is
providing £300 million of additional funding to make 73 stations
more accessible by 2024. Unfortunately, Thirsk is not one of them.
I felt that our campaign was good, and was building up a head of
steam. It had strong support from Graham Meiklejohn
at Transpennine Express, Grand Central,
for North Yorkshire County
Council, Professor Abrahams of the Northallerton and Thirsk Rail
Users Group, members of the public, and of course me. I am grateful
to all those people, with whom I work very closely on this
issue...
...I appreciate that funds are always in short supply; there
is no magic money tree. Elected representatives, including my
colleagues in the Department, must always consider those footing
the bill—the taxpayer—and, of course, value for money. I am keen to
work with the Department, Transpennine Express, local
authorities and local enterprise partnerships to find a solution. I
am very flexible in my approach to ensuring better access to the
station. Rather than putting in two lifts, one on either side of
the bridge, there is perhaps a business case for putting in a lift
on one side of it, and for moving the ticket office on the platform
to the other side. That would be a cheaper option. It would save us
perhaps around £1 million in our bid. It will be interesting to see
what further funding might be made available to facilitate that
solution...
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