We asked you to submit your questions to candidates standing in the 2024 General Election.
From all your submissions, we chose 10 that represented the broad issues you wanted answers to.
We asked every candidate we had contact details for to respond.
We’ll be publishing them in the run-up to the General Election with the responses from the candidates who replied from each constituency.
These are the answers are from candidates standing in the Whitehaven & Workington constituency.
What do you plan to do about the abysmal state of public transport? Buses are either late, cancelled or constantly breaking down and not mechanically fit for purpose
Jill Perry, the Green Party
As a bus-user and the councillor for a rural ward with a limited bus service, I recognise exactly what you are saying about the buses in our area.
Rural bus services have dropped by 52% since 2008, even though we had known about the climate crisis for nearly 20 years by then. Green MPs will push for local authority control over bus services and the funding to exercise that control. We want every village to have a bus service they can rely on. This does mean public subsidy for bus travel and it also includes free travel for under 18s.
We also want a much better rail service taken back into public ownership as current contracts expire, and a roll-out of electrification to make the railways more sustainably powered. They would get their share of the £10bn subsidy by the end of the next parliament.
Andrew Johnson, the Conservative Party
We’re investing millions in restoring, creating and extending bus services through our councils, but they’ve been slow in getting that funding to bus routes and outlining what their local priorities are – particularly in Cumberland.
Our local bus companies are starting to invest in a new fleet, as recently reported, though we also need to consider other options as well as buses.
In addition, the coastal railway line is set to benefit from significant upgrades, thanks to the investment from the mine.
Chris Wills, Liberal Democrats
Public transport needs a revolution. I’m glad to be able to provide a part of that: taxi-buses.
Taxi-buses will provide a dial up, door to door service.
The current bus model can only ever work where there is sufficient volume of passengers, mainly cities and towns.
Taxi-buses will employ a part state subsidised, part private enterprise model.
More driver training, more safeguarding, Artificial Intelligence managed, multiple contact means from phone to online dial up.
Josh MacAlister, Labour
Currently, bus services are just not good enough. I do believe Stagecoach are trying to make improvements – they recently brought online £1 million worth of new buses in our area for example – but passengers stood waiting hours for a bus that never arrives clearly aren’t seeing that. Labour will make it easier for buses to be brought back under public control and if private operators can’t deliver a reliable service, and Stagecoach certainly aren’t at the moment, then I think that’s something we need to look at in Cumbria.
David Surtees, Reform UK
Cumbria Crack received no answers from Mr Surtees. Just before the election was called, he was diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing six weeks of treatment, which he said had curtailed his ability to campaign.
