Oral Answers to Questions

Jeremy Hunt Excerpts

Thursday 8th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Heidi Alexander]

I would be happy to ask the Roads Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Wakefield and Rothwell (Simon Lightwood), to meet my hon. Friend, who has campaigned hard to secure a viable future for Doncaster Sheffield airport, and I also appreciate the importance of this junction. We have given a significant amount of funding to the South Yorkshire mayoral combined authority to determine what its local investment priorities are. I encourage her to continue discussions with the Mayor of South Yorkshire to that effect.

[Sir Jeremy Hunt (Godalming and Ash) (Con)]

Being able to commute to work easily is vital for economic growth, but my constituents using Ash Vale station have to climb the equivalent of two storeys of stairs, making it virtually impossible for people in wheelchairs, older people or young parents with prams to get up and get on to the main line to London. There is an excellent proposal under Access for All on the Secretary of State’s desk. When will my constituents find out whether there will be a happy new year for them?

[Heidi Alexander]

The right hon. Gentleman has raised the question of accessibility at this station with me at Transport questions, and he is right to say that it is one of the schemes being considered as part of the Access for All programme. He is also right to say that decisions about that scheme are literally on my desk at the moment. He does not have too long to wait until we make an announcement about which schemes we will be taking forward, both for further design work and to construction.