Below is the text of the letter sent by the HRE group to Nick Harris of Highways England, sent on 14 June 2021.
Blog
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Eden District Council – 2021 Statement on Highways England Infilling Great Musgrave Railway Bridge
The statement issued by Eden District Council in June 2021.
The matter of Highways England looking to infill former railway bridges is a national issue, and not just specific to the Eden district.
In Eden there is one bridge affected by this, at Great Musgrave.
Highways England has the responsibility for the management and maintenance of the country’s historical railway estate, which includes over 3000 such bridges, tunnels and viaducts across the country.
Highways England is currently preparing to undertake works to infill the bridge at Great Musgrave.
In relation to whether these works require planning permission, it is important to note that Highways England do have permitted development rights to carry out certain works, without the need for the prior grant of planning permission. These rights would be covered in Part 9 and Part 19 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015.
Eden District Council’s Planning Service has opened a dialogue with Highways England to understand the full extent, nature and reasoning for the proposed works at Great Musgrave, to ascertain whether the works do fall within Permitted Development Rights.
This is an ongoing matter and discussions have not yet concluded.
Once sufficient information has been provided by Highways England, the Planning Service will be able to judge whether these works do constitute a Permitted Development, or if they require the prior granting of planning permission. This information will inform what action, if any, can be taken in relation to these works.
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Peter Kyle – 2021 Comments on the Pupil Premium Funding
The comments made by Peter Kyle, the Shadow Schools Minister, on 17 June 2021.
This data confirms warnings from Labour, school leaders and teachers that the government are wilfully cutting support for those children who are most likely to have struggled with learning during the pandemic.
The Pupil Premium stealth cut will see schools losing out on an estimated £119 million in funding which should be providing extra support to over 103,000 children, helping them achieve at school.
Stripping away funding to support the kids who need it most is unacceptable – doing so during a pandemic is a disgrace. Unlike the Tories, Labour will do everything it takes to make this country the best place in the world to grow up in. Labour’s recovery plan commits to reversing this cut and delivering the opportunities every child needs to bounce back from the pandemic.
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Stephen Kinnock – 2021 Comments on the Apple Daily Newspaper in Hong Kong
The comments made by Stephen Kinnock, the Shadow Asia and Pacific Minister, on 17 June 2021.
The raid on Apple Daily and the arrests of journalists is yet another unacceptable attack on Hong Kong’s media freedom, guaranteed under the Basic Law.
Democracy and the ‘one country, two systems’ principle are being steadily crushed.
The UK must stand up to these efforts to silence the people of Hong Kong. It is time for the UK government to sanction Carrie Lam and other senior officials responsible for the crackdown, and withdraw support for British judges serving in Hong Kong’s compromised legal system.
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Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2021 Comments on the Manchester Arena Inquiry Report
The comments made by Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Shadow Home Secretary, on 17 June 2021.
Today we have in our thoughts the 22 children and adults who were murdered and the hundreds injured in the Manchester Arena attack. We will always remember them, and their families who live with the pain of loss every single day. We thank all those people who responded so bravely on the night and who have done so much to help ever since.
Learning the lessons from this horrific act, doing everything we possibly can to try and ensure it can never happen again, is a duty we owe to those who have been lost.
The report is correct that the ultimate responsibility for the events of 22 May 2017 lies with the vile perpetrators. However, we must look closely at the findings and what must change. It is heartbreaking to read in the report that ‘there were a number of missed opportunities to alter the course of what happened that night. More should have been done.’
Every necessary step must now be taken to embed these tragic lessons into the practice of everyday security. We will look closely at the recommendations and see how Labour can best play a role in helping to secure the changes necessary.
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Ellie Reeves – 2021 Comments on the Government’s Rape Review
The comments made by Ellie Reeves, the Shadow Solicitor General, on 17 June 2021.
After waiting over two years for this to be published by the Government, the review and its recommendations do not go far enough.
Rape prosecutions are at a record low, only one in 60 rapes are leading to a charge and this review was meant to understand the failings of the criminal justice system, and set out the Government’s plan to reverse the worrying deterioration of rape charges, prosecutions and conviction levels. The Government have failed to do that, and it has failed victims of rape on every front by pushing the justice system to the brink of collapse through a decade of cuts to police, courts and the CPS.
This review was a real opportunity to improve the criminal justice system for victims of rape, and it has missed that opportunity. The Government should urgently introduce Labour’s root and branch reforms to support rape victims, instead of piecemeal pilots and tinkering that will not do enough to fix the Government’s failure to support rape victims.
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Andy McDonald – 2021 Comments on Covid-19 Being a Workplace Risk
The comments made by Andy McDonald, the Shadow Secretary of State for Employment Rights and Protections, on 17 June 2021.
The decision not to classify covid as a ‘serious’ workplace risk means that inspectors are unable to halt work activities exposing workers to coronavirus, and shows that the Government is putting working people and the wider public at risk. There have been almost 4,000 workplace outbreaks yet not a single employer has been prosecuted.
It is outrageous that even after 15,000 working age people have died from Covid, and many more are suffering from long covid, the virus isn’t considered ‘serious’.
With rising case numbers of the Delta variant ahead of the planned easing of restrictions, this decision is deeply irresponsible and shows that the Government is failing to keep working people safe.
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Nick Thomas-Symonds – 2021 Comments on the Daniel Morgan Report
The comments made by Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Shadow Home Secretary, on 15 June 2021.
The findings in this report are damning and go to the very heart of our policing, criminal justice system and media. My thoughts are with the Morgan family who have been denied justice for over three decades.
The Panel’s finding of a “form of institutional corruption” is incredibly serious. The Metropolitan Police must now account for what has happened and act on the report.
Ministers must set out a detailed timeline for when the report’s recommendations will be implemented. The time for a ‘duty of candour’ is long overdue, and it is for the Government to provide reassurance to the Morgan family and the wider public that something like this can never happen again.
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Luke Pollard – 2021 Comments on the UK-Australian Trade Deal
The comments made by Luke Pollard, the Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on 15 June 2021.
The Government are screwing over our farmers the same way they screwed over the British fishing industry. To do so with one sentence in a press release, and no answers to the crucial questions it raises, shows a staggering contempt for Britain’s farming communities.
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Emily Thornberry – 2021 Comments on the UK-Australian Trade Deal
The comments made by Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade, on 15 June 2021.
With this deal, and the precedent it sets for New Zealand, America, Canada and Brazil, the government will send thousands of farmers to the wall, undermine our standards of animal welfare and environmental protection, and threaten the conservation of our countryside.
Instead of using the opportunity of Britain’s first post-Brexit trade deal to create jobs in every sector, drive our economic recovery, and raise standards around the world, the government has done the opposite with this agreement on agriculture.
No other country in the world would accept such a terrible deal for its farming industry, and neither should we. Any Tory MP backing this deal today needs to have a hard look in the mirror, and ask how they would reacted if it had been proposed by Brussels instead.
What makes this deal all the more indefensible is that, while Australia is getting everything it wanted and more, we are getting next to nothing in return, with a miniscule 0.025% increase in UK growth the most optimistic projection the government can come up with.