Council leader tells PM "we need action as well as words"

Council leader Tudor Evans has vowed to keep up the pressure on the Government to ensure the region's rail issues stay at the top of Whitehall's to-do list.

He has written to the Prime Minister asking for a progress report on a number of commitments the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Transport made when they visited the city in the aftermath of last month's storm.

He said: "We had some encouraging words from the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Transport when they were down here – but we need these words to be translated into actions.

"My letter reminds the Prime Minister of his own words that 'plans for the South West need to be as ambitious as they are for every other part of the UK'.

"We all saw the Prime Minister on television acknowledging the city's need for faster journey times and while we recognise studies need to be carried out on options, a better faster route fit for the 21st century has to be the answer."

Wider economic gains for the South West peninsula must be at the forefront of future decisions about the peninsula's rail connections and the study cannot simply be a technical transport document – the area's economy has to be at the heart of it, he said.

Councillor Evans reiterated his call for people to write to their MPs and the Government to press the case for an additional rail route for the region. And he is calling on the members of the Plymouth Area Business Council to do the same.

He added: "While Whitehall may have gone quiet on this, we cannot afford to. This issue is too important to Plymouth and the South West peninsula to say nothing. We need to keep banging the drum on this."