Jonathan Gullis held the penultimate Adjournment Debate of the year in the House of Commons.
He questioned the Minister for Roads and Local Transport, Guy Opperman, about road funding which is one of his priorities in Stoke-on-Trent North.
Between 2019 and 2023, Stoke-on-Trent Conservatives secured a record £39 million to resurface over 1,200 roads and pavements, and fix over 30,000 potholes. This will be supplemented by Network North, a £36 billion package for the North and Midlands’ transport network.
For roads specifically, over £8.3 billion has been set aside to develop the road network. This includes upgrades to junction 15 of the M6 and the A50/A500 corridor from Stoke to Derby.
However, Jonathan argues that the National Highways Funding Formula simply isn’t good enough, and puts pressure on a local authority with the second poorest council tax base in the country, to potentially take money from other services to make sure our roads are fit for purpose.
In addition to asking the Minister about road funding, Jonathan pushed the Government to hold Network Rail to account for their “repeated failures” to back the people of Kidsgrove and get the upgrades to the railway station underway.
Commenting, Jonathan Gullis said: “It was really important to question the Minister on an issue that is essenital to people in Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke.
“Current road funding formulas do not work for our community and I am pleased to put on my record my campaign to change it.”
“I hope the Minister will listen to my concerns and back motorists in Stoke-on-Trent.”