Labour councillors to demand council leader 'personally guarantees' plans for Hucknall and Bulwell rail line will go ahead

Proposals to re-open the Maid Marian Line and extend the Robin Hood Line – which goes through Hucknall and Bulwell – were not guaranteed in the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) announcement last week, which also confirmed the scrapping of plans to build an HS2 hub at Toton.

Instead, the IRP merely made reference to existing proposals already on the table for both the Robin Hood and Maid Marian lines with nothing that guaranteed either project would be happening.

Now, during the council’s full council meeting today, Coun Mike Pringle (Lab), Labour deputy leader will call on Coun Ben Bradley (Con), to personally guarantee proposals for the two rail lines will be acted upon.

Coun Pringle, who represents Ollerton at County Hall, said: “Today we will be debating the Nottinghamshire Plan, which sets out this council’s vision for our residents for the next 10 years.

"We can’t achieve that alone, we need investment in infrastructure to make it happen and what was missing from last week’s rail plan announcement was the fact that the really precious local rail connections which are needed to connect some of the more cut off villages to the rest of the county, namely the Robin Hood and Main Marian train lines, have not had funding guaranteed to them yet.

“Today I’m calling on Coun Bradley to make this commitment to members in the chamber, and to the public, that the funding will be secured.

“I make no apologies for being somewhat parochial about this, for my residents in Ollerton, and on behalf of other communities who need that connectivity and frankly after years of underinvestment in public transport, deserve it.

“As Coun Bradley is both MP for Mansfield and leader of this council, I know he’ll want to make this commitment to our residents.

"Our young people need to be connected to better opportunities all around, we need to be able to grow our local economies and we all need to be able to access the best of what Nottinghamshire has to offer up and down the county.”