Clarity sought on rail future

Coun Janet Battye (Calder), leader of the Liberal Democrat group and her deputy Coun James Baker (Warley), put forward a motion to full council calling for the issue to be pressed with the Chancellor George Osborne and Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin following the announcement that electrification schemes across the North would be ‘paused’.

The motion calls upon the council’s chief executive Merran McRae to question the government and “asking them to progress the electrification of rail lines in West Yorkshire, including the Calder Valley line, at the earliest opportunity.”

It also calls for council leader Tim Swift (Lab, Town) and Conservative group leader Stephen Baines (Northowram and Shelf) to use their position on the West Yorkshire Combined Authority “to ensure that the Combined Authority increases its efforts to promote the economic case for the electrification of rail lines in West Yorkshire.”