After a not-so-sunny summer, it was back to school and work for everyone last week. For me that meant after a few weeks spent meeting local people and businesses in my Bolton West & Atherton constituency, I am now back down to Westminster on Mondays to Thursdays so that I can represent local people in Parliament.
As the nights start to draw in, we have a busy schedule to get through this Parliament – not least the important business of ensuring that Brexit happens. The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill has started to make its way through Parliament, having its second reading last week. This is a vital piece of legislation that will make sure we have an orderly Brexit.
There has been a lot of talk about so-called Henry VIII powers, but in reality if this Bill didn’t go through, there would be legal chaos as the alternative would be working our way through decades worth of EU law – quite literally around 20,000 pieces of legislation – which would take years and years to do. It certainly would not be done in time for us leaving the EU in 18 months’ time.
Labour have already said that they are going to vote against it. This is irresponsible and, I believe, a breach of trust with voters. By voting against this Bill they are simply voting for chaos.
Labours General Election Manifesto made it clear that they were as equally determined to leave the European Union as the Conservative Party but, since then, their position has shifted dramatically. They now want to drag out any Brexit implementation period until after the next General Election which will then give them the opportunity to keep us in the EU. Labour’s plan to keep us in the customs union and the single market will mean we do not control our borders, we continue to hand British taxpayers’ money over, we are subordinate to the European Court of Justice and that we won’t be able to negotiate trade deals with our friends across the world.
You can be assured that I will continue to work in Parliament to ensure that the will of the British people is acted upon.
I was interested to hear that Hamilton Street in Atherton is one of the most complained about roads in the whole of the Wigan borough according to an excellent investigation by the Leigh Observer in last week’s paper. That will come as no surprise to residents. I have had this road mentioned to me a number of times over the last couple of years, the last time just a short few weeks ago when a resident complained about HGVs using the road as a shortcut – despite ‘unsuitable for HGV’ signs being placed at both ends of the road.
Many of the roads in our town were not designed for heavy use by HGVs which is one of the reasons why I have been campaigning to get a link road built from the M62 at Orrell and the M61 at Westhoughton. By extending the Atherleigh Way as was always intended, some of the HGVs would have a more appropriate route rather than traipsing through our towns and churning up our roads. It would also sort out some of the congestion and stop our towns being used as through roads for commuters on their way to Manchester or elsewhere.
Speaking of roads, last week we got confirmation that the roadworks on the M60 and M62 are now – finally! – nearing completion.
Next month, the temporary narrow lanes between junctions 8 and 10 on the M60 will be removed. Then the extra lanes and electronic signs on the M62, from junctions 18-20, will be opened by December – increasing the number of lanes from 3 to 4.
Temporary narrow lanes will then be removed between junctions 15 and 18 on the M60 in early 2018, and between junctions 10 and 15 in the spring with the final set of electronic signs on the M60 to be switched on by the summer.
The £208 million smart motorway scheme has been a massive project – as well as a huge investment by the government in the road infrastructure in the North – and this will hopefully ease the congestion and disruption commuters have had to put up with over the last few years.