ANDOVER MP Sir George Young, has spoken in the House of Commons on the need for railway stations in his constituency to have larger car parks to cope with increased demands.

Sir George, a former cabinet minister for transport who regularly cycles to Andover station from his Penton Mewsey home, says Grateley, Andover, Whit-church and Overton have car parks which are too small for their needs.

During the discussions on new railway legislation, he said: "People want to go by train, but they can't because they can't park at the stations."

Changes to the way the industry is run will make it less likely that the railways will get the money they need to provide improvements, he believed.

Instead the minister will have a greater role, especially where funding is involved.

"The bill will move back towards the situation that existed before 1993, when the Government and the secretary of state had a more important role," he said

"That is likely to lead us back to the position of the 1980s and 1990s, when the industry simply could not access the capital it needed for modernisation.

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