Every town has a story - a strong community, unique history, local skills and industry. Our towns are the back bone of Britain with much to be proud of, but too often they don’t get a fair deal.
Tory austerity has hit towns harder because budget cuts mean services often move back into the cities. Many towns have lost our police stations, courts, hospital services, local council services, libraries, sports centres and swimming pools.
Transport investment is a joke. Buses have been cut. Towns like ours in Yorkshire still have overcrowded old pacer trains that are often cancelled or delayed. Yet the Government shoves all the money into expensive and delayed city projects like Crossrail and HS2, while towns get little.
Our towns are still great places to live. But new jobs are growing faster in cities, while manufacturing and retail jobs are going from the towns.
How are people supposed to commute when public transport lets them down?
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Under pressure from campaigns like the Mirror’s and from town MPs, the Government has finally announced a Towns Fund.
But it’s nowhere near enough to reverse austerity.
And it looks more like a political bribe than a proper town plan. Of the 100 towns the Government has chosen, the majority are in constituencies with small majorities - all only given a vague promise of money.
It’s time we had a proper plan for our towns. That means serious investment in jobs and infrastructure with a proper industrial strategy.
Towns should be the priority for new waves of broadband and mobile communications upgrades.
It could give more power and money back to local councils and townspeople who have great ideas for the future of our towns. For example, let’s have a Town of Culture Award, not just a City of Culture Award, to celebrate town culture.
And we need a rail and bus plan for towns and a guarantee to cover the basic services that towns should expect - like NHS services, police stations, libraries, community centres, magistrates’ courts, post offices and ATMs.
I am sick and tired of being told by senior NHS managers that it makes no difference for patients if they have to travel long distances when routine services are moved into the city.
That’s why our Labour Towns group of MPs and councillors from towns have put forward new ideas and we will keep campaigning for a fair deal.
