Life in the slow lane?

By Darren Jones

This week Lord Adonis, the former Secretary of State for Transport who launched High Speed Rail (HSR) plans in the last Government, launched a joint campaign with Progress and SERA to lobby the Government of today on its plans for HSR, due to be consulted on in the next month.

The ‘Labour 4 High Speed 2′ campaign aims to urge the Labour Party to continue its policy commitment to HSR in order to use its position in opposition to lobby the Government to reconsider a country-wide HSR policy and not just a London – Birmingham line, as is currently proposed.

This is an important campaign and anyone who cares not just about economic growth and regional development but also the environment should pledge to help the campaign.

Whilst this is an admirable campaign I find myself somewhat confused – a state of confusion induced by my inability to find any mention whatsoever about the South West. There now seems to be some repetition in my need to ask people not to forget about the South West but I find myself once again pleading the case for the region I live, work and campaign in.

It is true that Bristol has good train connections to London but anyone wishing to travel past Bristol will find life a little, well, slower. Whilst the South West has a well deserved reputation for natural beauty, holiday destinations and perhaps a slower pace of life it has an undeserved assumption that it isn’t important.

The Cornish economy is ripe for development, academic research and development in Plymouth, Exeter and Bristol is world leading and the regions positioning to benefit from the ‘green’ economy – with its cycle cities, wind farms, wave hubs and eco-towns – is perfect. Perfect that is, apart from its poor transport links and low speed internet (internet being a story for another time). Anyone who has travelled from London Paddington to Plymouth or indeed Penzance will have experienced the well know “post-Bristol lag”.

The South West has urban hubs jumping at the chance of driving development but they continually find themselves unable to do so – they need infrastructure, economic incentive and central support to secure a prosperous tomorrow for its communities. This lack of development has even produced slogans with the so-called “South West Brain Drain” (representing the movement of educated graduates out of the region in search of jobs) being a prime example. Further still, when I was the parliamentary candidate in Torridge & West Devon, I was amazed to see that the few train lines there were literally stopped on the border of the constituency. With slow or non-existent rail, no motorway after Exeter and little or no air-connections, transport becomes without question a major issue to people in the South West, both in urban and rural areas.

In this age of austerity and Tory-led cuts-only policy the South West is forced into a vulnerable position. The disbanding of the South West Regional Development Agency and the potential loss of EU convergence funding for Cornwall due to removal of Government match funding, as well as the smaller but equally as important infrastructure losses (such as the Plymouth-to-London city airport flight), makes the region in vital need of support. The Financial Times reported that an over-reliance on public sector employment makes the region ready to suffer the most from public spending cuts and the removal of EMA will prevent hundreds of young people from being able to afford transport to education providers. Support for innovation, enterprise and growth is crucial. Support for small businesses, families and young people is vital.

Whilst I fully support the Labour 4 High Speed 2 campaign I urge people to not forget the South West and to take the region seriously in consideration for development. I live in one of the most wonderful regions of our country and I can only hope that the region is supported to grow into its future potential and, most importantly of all, not forgotten.