Charlotte Cane

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) on securing the debate and summing up the issues so comprehensively. I want to talk about transport. Successive Governments have judged transport investment by the number of people using it. Rural areas obviously lose out by that criterion, yet our need for transport is significant. We need cycleways and footpaths because our roads are narrow and unlit. We need regular, reliable and affordable buses, with routes that get us to more places than just the nearest town—we have friends, clubs, GPs, schools and shops in neighbouring villages, and we should not need a car to get there safely. In my constituency, we have villages with no buses. Other villages do have a bus, but only every two hours, with the last bus at 7 pm and no bus on Sunday. Many of our sixth-form college students have to take two buses and spend two hours travelling each way to college. Four hours’ travel a day does not leave much time and energy for study. Rural communities are beautiful places to live, but we need Government to invest in them; otherwise, they will become places where only those fit and wealthy enough to drive can live, and that is not acceptable.