For many years, there has been a summer rail service from Walkden direct to Blackpool North, which has been popular with many local residents, especially families with young children and pensioners.
Unfortunately in the new summer timetable, the Blackpool service has vanished, meaning that residents will now have a more complicated journey, or will simply take the car instead.
If you’ve been affected by this service cut, I can only echo the advice of the Friends of Walkden Station and ask you to write to Northern Rail at customer.relations@northernrail.org and let them know what you think!
I’ve lived in Walkden since I was a small boy, and my family roots in the local area go back much further – my mother grew up on Birch Road in Walkden and my father on Vicars Hall Lane in Boothstown, and I have family across the local area, including in Little Hulton and Peel Green.
As someone who aspires to represent the local area in Parliament, I promise that if elected that the views of the local people who I would represent would be at the forefront of my mind every step of the way and with every decision that I would take. I will never forget that it is my family, my friends, my neighbours and my colleagues who will vote to decide whether or not I am successful at the next General Election.
Too many MPs – on all sides of the House – have clearly made it down to Westminster and forgotten about the people who elected them. Faced with a vote, or an expenses form, my reaction will be – “what would my constituents want me to do?”.
With that in mind, here are a few straightforward pledges I am making now to local residents. If elected as the next MP for Worsley and Eccles South, I will:
- Always put the interests of local people in Worsley and Eccles South first in every decision I make
- Publish details of any expenses claims I make, when they are made, on my website
- Claim only for standard-class rail travel between Worsley and Westminster (unless an advance first-class fare is cheaper), and use cheaper advance fares where possible
- Run a staffed constituency office, and publish the names of those staff, who will not be members of my family
- Not use the £10000 per annum communications allowance, and ensure that all political leaflets are paid for by myself or by local Conservatives – not the taxpayer
- Only claim for expenses directly incurred as a result of my work as an MP – no furniture, no televisions, no food and drink.
- Be a full-time MP serving the people of Worsley and Eccles South.
I made a brief appearance on Allan Beswick’s Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Manchester this morning to discuss the issue of MP Expenses. You can catch it on BBC iPlayer if you wish to do so – I was on just after 8am.
The continuing scandal over MP expenses has reached a little closer to home today, with the disclosure in the Manchester Evening News that Paul Goggins MP allowed taxpayers to pay for a £3000 suite and a new garden shed for his home in Boothstown.
Obviously I’m pleased that Mr Goggins likes the local area so much that he chooses to live here rather than in his Wythenshawe and Sale East constituency (his constituents may be rather less amused) but at a time when many local residents in Boothstown and across Salford are struggling with their bills they will be appalled that the MP amongst their number has claimed for luxury items at the expense of the taxpayer.
Sajjad Karim MEP on the Blue Blog
North-West Conservative MEP and Conservative Euro Election candidate Sajjad Karim has posted an interesting article on the Blue Blog about campaigning in the North-West over the last few weeks – click here to read it.
I spent an enjoyable morning today in Worsley ward talking to local residents on the doorstep. We had a very positive response, and picked up a number of local concerns which myself and the three Worsley ward Councillors will act upon.