North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has questioned the Economy Minister this week over Welsh Government actions to support the economic development in the Mersey Dee area.
Speaking in Wednesday’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood referred to the connectivity and infrastructure investments being made in the area by the UK Government and asked how the Welsh Government will work with the UK Government to maximise the economic benefit of these works.
He said:
“In addition to UK Government-supported signalling renewals on the North Wales Main Rail Line and over £1.2 billion UK Government funding for the Liverpool City Region, benefiting rail services and intra-city transport and economies in the Mersey Dee area, including North-East Wales, the Mersey Dee area has received £59 million directly from the UK Government, including £2.6 million for the Wrexham-Bidston-Liverpool rail line, and £400,000 to further develop proposals for a new station at Deeside Industrial Park. Step-free access at Flint station is also in development.
“Network Rail is progressing the development of North Wales mainline journey time improvements to Outline Business Case stage by summer 2022, following which a Decision to design will be sought by the Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline. And £42.5 million development moneys for the Union Connectivity Review, carried out for the UK Government, which recognised North Wales and North-West England as a highly integrated cross-border economy that will benefit from a programme of transport improvements, will be allocated soon.
“How will you and your officials therefore work with the UK Government to maximise the economic benefit of this for the Mersey Dee area?”
In his response, the Minister, Vaughan Gething MS, said HS2 “should be seen as an England-only project, not England-and-Wales, and that would actually allow us to have significant additional investment within connectivity and transport infrastructure here in Wales.”
Speaking outside the meeting, Mr Isherwood said:
“Contrary to Vaughan Gething’s repeated eagerness to score partisan points over the HS2 high-speed railway line, I am encouraged by both the independent analysis showing the economic benefit that the HS2 railway will bring to North Wales; and the welcome given by the Growth Track 360 partnership, including the North Wales Economic Ambition Board and the Mersey Dee Alliance, to January’s introduction of the UK High-Speed Rail (Crewe to Manchester) Bill, which will facilitate construction of HS2. Confirmed plans include the new junction north of Crewe station they had called for to better connect our region with HS2.”