I recently met virtually with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, Baroness Vere, to discuss the need to better fund Stoke-on-Trent City Council via the allocation highway maintenance. It is great to have the backing of local colleagues Jack Brereton MP and Jo Gideon MP.
Currently the formula used by the Department benefits rural areas with miles of minor roads and fails to look at the strategic nature of usage of the roads in urban areas like Stoke-on-Trent.
I want a fairer formula so we can get the money to fix our roads.
Baroness Vere accepted the formula wasn’t perfect and that more needs to be done to help improve funding to Stoke-on-Trent for such critical maintenance work.
I will work with the Stoke-on-Trent City Council for the next funding bid to lobby for our fair share.