East Midlands MEP urges rethink on funding for key regional transport scheme

East Midlands MEP Emma McClarkin has joined forces with other Conservative MEPs from East Anglia and the Midlands to challenge the European Commission for rejecting a funding bid to help shift millions of tons of freight from road to rail in the region.

Along with her colleagues, she has written to the European Transport Commissioner, Violeta Bulc, protesting the department’s refusal to help fund a project to boost rail capacity between the massive container port at Felixstowe and both the East and West Midlands.

By removing bottlenecks on the relevant rail route, the scheme aims to create capacity for 18 more trains a day, each carrying up to 90 containers. Engineering work would include removing level crossings and redoubling parts of the track, potentially taking 800,000 lorries off the roads each year.

It would cost more than £300million and Britain is seeking funding of some £86million on the basis that the scheme would boost freight transport right across the continent to the South of France.

The MEPs challenged the decision that the scheme did not offer enough “added value” at a European level to merit funding.  In particular, they rejected an assumption that funding should only promote transport schemes spanning land frontiers.

The letter said: “this risks further isolation of the UK as island. There is no land border between the UK and other continental European Member States therefore our maritime ports fulfil the same function as a cross border rail section between mainland European Member States.”

Now they are hoping the Commission will have a change of heart when a bid is resubmitted in six months’ time. Without the funding it is understood elements of the scheme will go ahead on a more limited scale.

Miss McClarkin said: “We are not asking for special treatment, we just want a fair recognition of the UK’s unique position in Europe as an island nation. We operate major trading links with Europe and the rest of the world, so this scheme is not only good for our regions and good for the UK, it is also good for Europe as a whole.

“British taxpayers help fund the EU budget – we should get our fair share back. We have had success in bidding for EU grants on this line in the past and we want to be able to ensure that when we resubmit the bid it is successful. Getting such massive volumes of freight off our busy roads and onto the railways has to make sense.”