ROYSTON Smith’s response to the article about Government cuts to road repair budgets was predictably ill-informed.
It is still surprising, though, that as a Conservative MP he is unaware that his Government offered funding to local authorities last year with specific instructions to put in cycle lanes, bus lanes and to introduce other measures to ensure social distancing during the pandemic.
He persists in confusing the roads budget, which is subject to large Government funding cuts, with green transport measures which have been funded partly by the Government’s initiative, and partly by the Green Transport Recovery Plan budget.
Re-elected on a Conservative platform in 2019, Mr Smith seems to have been left out of the loop again by his own Government.
Or perhaps he doesn’t want to allow the facts to get in the way of his obsession with cycle lanes and bus lanes.
The Government initiative to assist local authorities in promoting active travel was one of the few good ideas that they have come up with, helping Southampton residents to travel quickly to school and work, get healthy exercise and reducing the damage to the environment and poor air quality from too many cars driving into the city centre.
And yet local Conservatives feel they have to oppose their own Government’s policies just because they have been delivered by a Labour administration.
It is a shame that what could have been something we could have all agreed would be beneficial for our city is instead the subject of so much bad tempered complaining from the local Conservative MP.
John Savage
Southampton City Council
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