Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department received representations from (a) Durham county council and (b) the previous Member for North West Durham on re-opening a rail link to Consett between the end of April 2017 and 14 November 2019.

To help communities across the country, the Government has pledged £500m to start reopening lines closed following the Beeching report, reconnecting smaller towns, regenerating local economies and improving accessibility to jobs, homes and education. Further details about this funding will be announced in due course.

I can confirm that my Department has not received any representations from Durham County Council in the period between April 2017 and 14 November 2019 on the subject of re-opening a rail link to Consett. My predecessor responded to a written question from the previous Member for North West Durham on this subject on 22 November 2017 (Hansard Ref:113009).