MP makes maiden speech with transport agenda for region

West Devon MP Rebecca Smith wants towns linked up with Plymouth

South West Devon Conservative MP Rebecca Smith has used her maiden speech in the House of Commons to campaign for improved rail links.

She asked the government for its commitment to completing remedial works at Dawlish and said she would fight for CrossCountry trains to call at Ivybridge station, not just Great Western Railway services.

Reinstating the railway line from Plymouth to Tavistock, a project which hangs in the balance following the government’s cancellation of the Restoring Your Railways programme, is critical to delivering a metro service linking the city with outlying towns and villages, she claimed, and would be key to the success of the Plymouth and South Devon Freeport.

Miss Smith set out her own transport agenda for the region during a debate  on the passenger railway services bill to bring railways back into public ownership.

She criticised the bill which she said seemed to indicate ideological time travel to the nationalised rail system of the past and a mistaken belief that state run institutions are the answer to all the country’s woes.

“Our railway system needs to drive forward into the middle of the twenty-first century not creep backwards to the 1970s.

“In the case of South West Devon, this means the difference between reaching our full potential or missing the mark.”

She said much had been done by the previous Conservative government to safeguard the rail line through Devon at Dawlish following devastating floods in 2014 which washed away the track, platform, sea wall and coastal path.

“The site of a railway track in mid-air with nothing between it and the sea is not easily forgotten,” she said. “I will campaigning alongside cross party colleagues to see the remedial works at Dawlish completed.

“The government must also ensure that forthcoming HS2 works at Old Oak Common in London do not hamper the welcome progress made in improving our journey times from London to the south west.

“The mainline through Devon and Cornwall does not just take holidaymakers to our beautiful counties. It is vital lifeline for those who live and work there too.”

She said it was important that people could access the mainline from communities outside of the city particularly in Ivybridge and the new town of Sherford where the population was growing.

“To see the full economic benefits of the Plymouth and South Devon Freeport with its key investment sites at Langage and Sherford we must see the delivery of a metro railway linking Plymouth with Tavistock and Ivybridge including a stop in Plympton.

“It would also enhance connectively for the Dartmoor villages which are a welcome part of South West Devon following the boundary changes.

“The previous government’s plan to reopen the line from Plymouth to Tavistock is critical to delivering this metro service.

“I call on the new government to push forward with this proposal and enable us to get this metro service off the ground.”

The Plymouth and South Devon Freeport aims to attract millions of pounds of investment into the area through tax breaks to companies wishing to relocate. It is estimated that 3,500 jobs will be created.

The South West Devon MP and Plymouth councillor, whose previous job was working for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, thanked her predecessor and mentor Sir Gary Streeter for his 32 years service to the constituency.

She highlighted his “kindness, integrity and deep commitment to the people of South West Devon.”

She told MPs she is determined to be a voice for young people in the care system as her parents fostered children while she was growing up and she had “a deep interest in it”.

Having chaired a commission on violence against women and girls in Plymouth, Miss Smith said  she wanted to see “societal change” and believed with cross-party support this “long term challenge” would happen.

The Plymouth resident paid tribute to female Plymouth MPs before her, particularly Nancy Astor who became the first female MP to take a seat in the House of Commons in 1919.