Giles Watling, Member of Parliament for Clacton, has spoken in a parliamentary debate to bang the drum for greater investment into the area under the “levelling up” agenda.
Talking after the debate in Westminster Hall on the 18th, Giles said “The East of England needs to be levelled up in the same way as the rest of the country and, more to the point, we need to put in extra effort for areas like Clacton. The “East” is a very deceptive term as it is often a catch all term for “rich and leafy region.”
"The East is not homogenous. In fact, far from common levels of wealth, we have some of the most deprived pockets in the nation with some of our coastal areas."
"So, my plea is the following. Treat coastal areas as the data tells us; i.e. factually as in need of funding as many northern towns, and not lump us in with richer parts of the east.”
Giles went onto speak about how, even as we invest in rail and other forms of green transport, we cannot ignore local roads. Giles said to the Minister that “There is a consensus that, as we drive to net zero, we need to get people out of cars. This can work in London where there is a massive public transport network. However, for lots of us with smaller town and village networks, we don’t have this luxury of a 'anti-car' plan. We have smaller, aging and crumbling roads, and without upgrades here, we will only fall further behind – we can fix this!”
You can watch Giles' speech on his Facebook page using the link below.