Political Opinion: Mayoral hopeful Ben Bradley plans to improve public transport across the Peak District

In Hathersage, Mr. Bradley met with Hope Valley Climate Action to discuss local transport provision, and hear about the work they’ve been doing with local leaders to bring more sustainable public transport to the Hope Valley.

Having grown up in Derbyshire, Mr. Bradley was keen to talk about the challenges many local people face in accessing public transport across the county, and how our first regional mayor could help improve bus and train connectivity.

Ben spoke about his success in securing a £1.5 billion Transport Fund from Government last year, which forms the £4 billion of funding the new Combined Authority will have at its disposal.

He outlined his plans to introduce ‘tap-on/tap-off’ ticketing, which will make navigating the region’s public transport network cheaper and on a single ticket, and he outlined his plans to fill in the gaps through an ‘On Demand’ network of busses – something which has been massively successful in Nottinghamshire.

Discussing how the new mayor could use public transport to create more opportunities for young people, Mr. Bradley spoke about his commitment last year to fund free travel for young people to access work and education, and work with neighbouring authorities such as Manchester to better connect our major transport hubs.

Commenting, mayoral candidate Ben Bradley said:

“I had a really constructive discussion with the Hope Valley Climate Action group this week. We’ve got a lot of shared goals in terms of connecting people to work and attractions, in terms of supporting tourism around the region with good, integrated, efficient and effective public transport.

“As the only credible candidate in this election who has a Derbyshire background and knows this part of the world really well, I’m really keen to make sure we use this new opportunity to deliver real steps forward in investment in our public transport for our local residents.”

You can find out more about Ben Bradley’s mayoral campaign here.