Dear Editor, Your article “Burden in a jam over statement on Rover” (Post, July 9) just shows the hypocrisy of the Labour Party. When a parliamentary statement on London Crossrail took place a couple of years ago, Labour (quite rightly) criticised George Galloway MP for missing this statement and debate (which affected his constituency) as he was in the Celebrity Big Brother house.
However, when it comes to their own MP missing an important statement affecting their constituency because of a foreign parliamentary visit, it is a different matter. It would appear Labour can dish it out, but can’t take it back. Richard Burden’s non-attendance should come as no surprise to me. Centro has set up an all party Longbridge Working Group to look at the public transport vision. The Birmingham Labour representative’s attendance record on this group is woeful since I took over chairing the group a couple of years ago. The only assumption that can be drawn from this is that Labour is not interested in the future public transport vision relating to the former MG Rover site. Finally, I still have heard no words of support from Richard Burden regarding the re-opening of the ‘Camp Hill’ line which would allow residents living around the Hazelwell, Kings Heath and Moseley areas (the new stations proposed along the line) to catch the train to Longbridge, interchanging at an enlarged Kings Norton Railway Station, to take up future employment opportunities being created on the MG Rover site.
Councillor Timothy Huxtable,
(Conservative, Bournville Ward),
Lead Member – Rail & Metro Operations, Centro/ITA
