RORY TO HOST ‘PRIORITY’ RURAL TRANSPORT EVENT

Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and The Border, has committed to hosting an important event focusing on Rural Transport in Cumbria, to which he will invite fellow Cumbrian MPs and interested parties to meet and discuss the obstacles and potential solutions to delivering rural transport to communities in the area.

On Friday he met with representatives of the Community Transport Forum, Liz Clegg and Peter Smith; Alison Clegg of the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group; Cheryl Cowperthwaite of the County Council’s Transport Department; and Lorrainne Smyth of ACTion with Communities in Cumbria, where he received briefings on community, public, school and healthcare transport, and discussed a range of issues relating to rural transport, including subsidies for bus travel, the provision of transport for 16 to 18-year-olds, rural sharing and car schemes, and the ‘rural-proofing’ of transport policies in remote areas.

Rory Stewart MP said: “Holding a Rural Transport event for Cumbria is an absolutely priority for me. I was very grateful to receive up-to-date briefings today on the situation in Cumbria in relation to community, school, public and health transport, and I think it is absolutely vital that we get people together to try and find solutions to the problems that clearly exist. It’s difficult, but I am confident that there are solutions out there. Just as we are overcoming issues of sparsity in terms of mobile technologies, so too can we try and overcome issues of isolation through looking more closely at how our communities are served by transport. I am looking forward to hosting this event in the Summer, and to inviting my fellow Cumbrian MPs of all parties.”