"I agree with my hon. Friend. It is with great sadness that I see this fight between cities and rural areas that demonises the city areas. Around Stoke-on-Trent we have a doughnut economy. Stoke generates wealth for north Staffordshire and it filters out to the rural areas, yet we hear …..." Allison Gardner - View Speech
"One of the advantages of this Government’s plan for devolution is that it offers the opportunity to address the country’s many regional inequalities. Indeed, strategic authorities, particularly those with mayoralties, have the ability to address inequalities within individual regions. The Bill’s original clause 43 addresses health, wellbeing and public services …..." Allison Gardner - View Speech
"I reject the emotive use of terms like “gun to the head”. The Stoke-on-Trent city council and Staffordshire Moorlands district council proposals on LGR have been approved, and they are the democratically elected councils for those areas. The wider Staffordshire county council, which is now under Reform, had one proposal …..." Allison Gardner - View Speech
"In Staffordshire, which is quite rural—I have Stoke-on-Trent city centre in my constituency—we have that shared interlinking, and it is very important to the development of north Staffordshire. Staffordshire Moorlands council has shared services with High Peak in Derbyshire. Much of Stoke-on-Trent city council service provision is in the neighbouring …..." Allison Gardner - View Speech
"I wanted to intervene on the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking), but he had on his feet for over 20 minutes and I decided to give him a break. However, I want to raise that issue now. Much has been made about the conflict of planning—local planning going right …..." Allison Gardner - View Speech
"I am quite interested in what my hon. Friend says about the differential approach. As a councillor, I know that Stoke-on-Trent is not necessarily known for its tourism industry, although that is absolutely a failure on the part of the country and of everybody, because we have great tourism attractions …..." Allison Gardner - View Speech