Government’s “dithering” over a decision on additional airport capacity in the South East was blasted by Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald (pictured) at the Labour Party Conference over the weekend.

 

In his speech to the Liverpool conference he targeted a range of criticisms at Government policy and called for a “fairer” transport system that could bring economic growth and improve social mobility and cohesion.

 

“Following the vote to leave the EU, we need extra airport capacity more than ever,” he told delegates. “Yet the Government’s dithering and internal bickering is costing our economy millions upon millions of pounds.”

 

Government is expected to make a decision on whether to press ahead with an additional runway at Heathrow or Gatwick in the coming weeks.

 

The Shadow Transport Secretary also criticised cuts to transport budgets. “A third of our local roads are in need of urgent attention yet the Government cuts the funds to fix them and fails to shift more freight from road to rail,” he said.

 

He added that funding for cyclists is set to plummet by 70% at a time when “we need to be encouraging people to take up environmentally friendly modes of transport”.

 

Furthermore Andy McDonald took aim at rail franchising and claimed that public transport has increasingly become “detached” from the concept of public service.

 

“Transport surely has to be about the safe and efficient transport of people and goods and, at its heart, our transport systems should have fairness, value for money, quality and reliability of service and, crucially, accessibility for all.

 

“Sadly those imperatives in the drive for profits and dividends are all too often absent,” he said, highlighting problems with Southern trains which has registered a £99M profit despite thousands of service cancellations and delays.

 

He said Labour would like to see rail franchises returned to public ownership when current private contracts expire, allowing profits to be reinvested to improve services and keep fares down.

 

The Conservative Party conference takes place next week in Birmingham.