Dave Robertson
MP for Lichfield · Labour · United Kingdom
“As I am sure the Minister knows, I have been a trade unionist since I started my teaching career some years ago. I have been involved in a number of industrial actions over that time, as a teacher and member of a trade union and as a trade union staffer.”
“I very much appreciate that intervention, and I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on getting published in a very important journal. I am not in any way saying that the Secretary of State should not have any regard— [ Interruption. ] Now that he has made a joke, I want to say that I think he looks like a trombonist, rather than a trumpeter.”
“It is always a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Lewell. I will speak briefly on new clauses 79 and 80. I really like the intent of these new clauses, and the idea of Government working better and more together, public health being more of an agenda, and trying to get people working together in that framework.”
“I really appreciate and value that—I think this is a good debate for us to have—but if the Minister for investment has managed to secure an investor to save a large business that is essential to the economy of an area, do I want them to be held up by having to demonstrate that the investment will ensure public health? I am not sure I do.”
“To quote the Precision Health Technologies Accelerator at the University of Birmingham, very close to my Lichfield constituency, its leadership has been supportive of the removal of tariffs from pharmaceuticals, saying that the introduction of the tariffs could lead to “supply chains collapsing and patients suffering.” That is an enormous…”
“I thank the Secretary of State for giving way, and I apologise to my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Gareth Snell) for not quite being able to get here for the kick-off. The Secretary of State talks about the importance of the ceramics industry, both in economic and heritage terms.”
The complete record
Every one of 477 lines we hold for Dave Robertson, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 10.
“Quantum is just behind it, and it is potentially much more disruptive and much more beneficial to huge parts of the economy, especially healthcare. Trying to do everything through primary legislation is absolute folly. However, making sure we have primary legislation that allows us to drive the NHS into this space and to require and enable the NHS to stay on top of the proper use of data and to modernise its structures and practices can only be a good thing. I close by saying that I absolutely support clause 47 standing part of the Bill. It has the potential to drive huge improvements in the NHS, both on a local scale and on a more global scale.”
“In terms of how that is done technically, I am very far from a computer programmer—I have done a tiny bit in parts of my life, and it always drives me absolutely wild—but there would be a number of architectures that could be used to make this work. I am not an expert and would not profess to be or to give anybody advice on that. An advantage of the way the Bill is written is that things can be picked up by secondary legislation, which can go into a lot more technical detail. That is a real strength of how this is drafted. If we tried to mandate in primary legislation, in an Act of Parliament, far too granular a level of data science and information technology architecture, we would run a real risk of falling behind. Everybody is very aware of AI, and it is rare that I go a day without hearing people talk about it.”
“I appreciate the intervention, and it is nice for the hon. Member to get me back after I got him the other week. He is absolutely right. I do not think anybody in this room expects that after we have this discussion and the clause forms part of the Bill, and after the Bill goes through the parliamentary process and hopefully becomes an Act very soon, the next day there will instantly be this magical, ethereal thing called a single patient record and everything will drop into place immediately. I have a bridge to sell to anybody who thinks that. What the clause does is put the NHS on a path to being able to deal with data appropriately, in a 21st-century way, by adding the ability and requirement for the NHS to use data appropriately.”
“Rather than having 450 systems, which could potentially use 450 languages, and trying to teach all of them all 450 languages, we create the requirement to use a specific language. We then teach all 450 one additional language and they will all be able to feed in—”
“There is effectively a requirement on the phone companies that says, “If you want your app to be on our phones, it’s going to have to be able to use this language.” Depending on the operating system, the language will be slightly different, but the commercial requirement that apps must be able to use a certain language obliges the individual app producers and the individual pieces of hardware to have the driver to translate whatever language they use to talk to themselves into the one that works with the operating system. Does the hon. Gentleman think there is a parallel in the Bill? Having a piece of legislation that requires a single patient record, whatever that looks like and whatever language it uses, potentially shortcuts some of the problems he is talking about with using a plethora of systems.”
“The phone analogy is really valuable. I am not an expert on the various architectures that make up phone operating systems, but I know a little about drivers and a little about computer programming languages. The hon. Gentleman is right that all the different bits of hardware in every single phone speak to themselves in a different language. Lots of them use different computer programming languages, and they all require drivers to translate that into whatever the operating system uses. There are two or three major providers when it comes to mobile phones in the UK: Google and Android, and iOS.”
“We have heard a few times about Conservative fears about redundancy payments and so on. Why did they not add NHS England to the list of organisations covered by the modification order when they had the opportunity to do so? Is the hon. Lady aware of a reason why that did not happen when the Conservatives were in government?”
“The modification order is a piece of legislation that is often used in the public sector. It means that when people from a lot of public sector organisations are made redundant and find alternative employment at another state-funded organisation, they are not entitled to a redundancy payment. During their 14 years in power, it would have been entirely possible for the Conservatives to add NHS England to the list of organisations covered by the modification order. That would have prevented the costs that the hon. Lady has mentioned several times. It just seems like they did not take the opportunity to do that, and now they are saying that they should have done that when they were in government.”
“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is a long name; there are lots of letters in the second bit. The farming road map that we have seen today sets out a long-term plan for fertiliser. That will be really welcome for farmers across Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages because, due to actions way beyond this Government’s control in the strait of Hormuz, we are seeing real cost pressures. Can the Secretary of State give us an idea of when that long-term plan might be ready, and whether it will consider strategic reserves and diversifying the sources of fertiliser? Can she tell us what that will do to ensure that we have the fertiliser we need?”
“We could undermine the Secretary of State’s power to say that all parts of the system are fair game for them. Would the hon. Gentleman like to respond to that point?”
“I think this is the first time we have had a Robertson on Robertson intervention. It is a pleasure to break that duck. The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful point about the need to change culture to embed innovation across the NHS. There is an example that we always come back to: fax machines. Fax machines were used in the NHS for far too long. It was mandated in 2018 that the use of all fax machines had to be stopped by the end of March 2020, yet in 2023, the NHS still owned 600. That mandation came up against a cultural barrier and it did not work, because 600 of them survived for three years after that. In amendment 58, I see more mandation and nothing on culture. The problem with the amendment is that, by trying to mandate innovation too closely, we would miss the cultural point.”
“A huge number of people have worked at that site for a long time, delivering the best care they can, but they are being failed by the facilities that they are forced to work in. When I have conversations about primary care with people in Burntwood, they are never unhappy about the care they receive, about their doctors or about others who work in the NHS; they are unhappy about the facility that they are forced to use. I am standing here in 2026 and we still do not even have planning permission for the replacement centre. It has been promised so many times that people are beginning to doubt that it will ever happen. That is so hard to hear.”
“Across my constituency, the biggest health need is access to primary care. Two towns each make up one third of my constituency, so a third of my constituents live in Burntwood, 4 miles up the road from Lichfield— I believe my constituency is misnamed, but that is a matter for the boundary commissioner, not for me. When I talk to people about healthcare and access to primary care in Burntwood, one thing comes up time and again: the new health centre for Burntwood that was promised but never delivered. That centre was promised in 2009 when the old one was demolished, but its funding was cut in 2011 following the change of Government, and we are still waiting. A modular building had to be put up in the car park of the leisure centre—“modular building”, by the way, is a grand term for what are portacabins stacked on top of each other.”
“It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Jeremy. One of the most powerful things we can do as Members of this place is bring our constituents’ stories here so that they can form part of our discussions. That is what I will do as we discuss the future of NHS England. I openly admit that I have never knocked on a door and found that someone’s burning question was about the abolition of NHS England. I have never had that particular discussion, but I do have regular discussions about the NHS. We know how important it is to people. They value the greatest gift that the Labour party has ever given the United Kingdom. As we have those discussions, one thing that comes up time and again is that people will always want more; they will always want better healthcare, and they should be able to expect it.”
“I am quite comfortable with a Minister being accountable for that decision, because they are accountable to MPs, who are ultimately accountable to the people that it affects. Can you pare back your answer a little bit and talk about where that accountability should lie, and how we can ensure that it works? Sir Jeremy Hunt: That is a story I think every single Member of Parliament could repeat, and it is a fundamental flaw in the system. Do you not think it is completely ridiculous that you have to go to the Health Secretary, who is responsible for a budget of £160 billion—the largest healthcare system in the world—to sort out something like a GP surgery lease in your constituency? That is a perfect example of a problem that we should be able to sort out locally, and that is why I think the bureaucracy has got completely out of hand.”
“Q It is always a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Roger. Sir Jeremy, I want to turn to NHS England’s accountability, or lack thereof. I know you made the point that you did not want clinically advised decisions to be overly politicised, but I had the reverse in my constituency when a decision was made after the lease on a doctors’ surgery ran out. It could not be extended because of some rule in NHS England, but due to that lack of accountability, there was nothing that we could do. The surgery closed, and one in six of its patients was just redistributed to another surgery, so that accountability clearly failed in that space. If you are concerned that accountability ends up too close to the Department, where else should it land?”
“I welcome the new Minister to her place. I thank her for her work in facilitating the historic meeting last week, which was the first time a sitting Prime Minister has met a group of survivors in this space. It was a great meeting, but the survivors are understandably sceptical, because they have been let down severely by so many institutions for so long. Can she outline the steps she will take in the short and medium term to ensure those survivors start seeing the justice they have been denied for far too long?”
“In that meeting, he made it very clear that the meeting was the first step in ongoing engagement on this. I wonder if the Minister could carve out an opportunity to meet me and the co-chair of the all-party group, the hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain), to discuss where the GMC’s responsibilities lie on this, and whether there might be an opportunity for us to feed into the consultation that is open, so that we can ensure that the GMC takes action, although it has failed far too many women for far too long.”
“Members would expect—yet survivors tell me that their complaints to the GMC have gone unacknowledged and unaddressed for far too long. That is simply unacceptable, as I am sure we would all agree. It is appalling. These women have been left with nowhere to turn. Medical staff who should have been prioritising these women’s safety and health, and who should have been a safe port of call for reporting abuse, were instead complicit in it. The GMC should strike off any doctor found to have participated in these disgusting abuses. I welcome the attention that the Government are rightly giving the issue. Yesterday was a difficult day; there was a meeting between the all-party group and the Prime Minister—the first sitting Prime Minister to meet a group of survivors of historical sexual assault and abuse.”
“They were billed as standard company medicals, but they involved invasive gynaecological procedures and testing for sexually transmitted infections. In many cases, survivors say, results were delivered straight to their abuser without their knowledge. The women have been left with significant trauma, and anyone who has directly heard their stories, as I have, will no doubt be astonished by the serious consequences of that abuse, yet the doctors who carried out these tests have not paid any price. Survivors are still waiting for justice. One of the doctors who has been accused is still practising on Harley Street today. The General Medical Council says it has a zero-tolerance approach to sexual misconduct—as it should, and as I am sure all right hon. and hon.”
“That is why I wanted to take the opportunity of this debate to place on the record the serious concerns that survivors of abuse by Mohamed Al Fayed and his associates have about the failings of the General Medical Council in his case and associated ones. I am sure that the House knows that Fayed has been accused of systematic trafficking for sexual abuse, aided by a network of enablers. So far, almost 500 survivors have come forward to tell their stories, and there are believed to be many more. Fayed has rightly been called the UK’s Epstein. One dimension of the network that enabled his abuse relates to invasive medical examinations that he had doctors perform on female staff at various companies he owned.”
“I begin by thanking the right hon. Member for North East Cambridgeshire (Steve Barclay) for bringing this debate to the House today and for his advocacy on behalf of his constituents. I hope that Jack’s family, at what must be a terrible time for them, gain a small measure of solace from his story being raised in this place. I have the great privilege to be a co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for the survivors of Fayed and Harrods. I say that because it gives me the privilege of working with dozens of survivors who bring their stories to us, and members of the APPG can drive forward the agenda of bringing the crimes to light and ensuring that the systems that enabled the abuse for so long are dismantled.”
“We now have another one, and that must be met, because so many people across the town have seen so many broken promises and false dawns that they are failing to believe that anything will actually come good. This entire saga reinforces exactly why the Bill is needed and why these changes are needed. I do not want any other community in any other constituency to be overlooked and forgotten in the way that Burntwood in my constituency has been for so long.”
“I am very pleased to see the back of that particular quango, which so disadvantaged my constituents. However, that structure is still being used because the replacement is still not here—it was not delivered by the end of 2025. We do not have the planning application yet. We have once again been promised that it will be here by the end of next month. I am aware that the Reform-led county council inherited this situation and promise from a Conservative-led county council, but it has not sought to talk to the people in Burntwood. The council has not sought to explain why that promise was not going to be met; it just blew past it. It broke the promise with very little expectation.”
“In all that time, nobody has stepped up to right that wrong. We thought there might be light at the end of the tunnel in 2023, when we were promised a replacement by the end of last year. But before that happened, some pen pusher at NHS England decided that the existing surgery in that temporary structure had to close, which meant 5,000 patients distributed to other surgeries in the town. In a town of 30,000 people, that is a significant number. They were told simply to disperse them—“It’ll be fine, don’t worry. We’ll just disperse them.” That dispersal was so traumatic that an existing surgery has had to pick up the same temporary structure and is now operating out of there as well. There was also all the paperwork, legal matters and everything that went with that, because NHS England said that it could not extend for two years.”
“We are here tonight to talk about a very large piece of legislation, but I would like to focus my remarks on just one part of it, which is the changes the Government want to bring in around planning for the future in the NHS, which are so very needed. There is perhaps no better example of where that planning is going wrong than in Burntwood in my constituency. Almost 20 years ago, a new doctors surgery was planned for the town. The NHS at that time was very good at knocking things down; however, when the coalition Government rode into town in 2010, all the funding for the replacement was cut. Here we are, almost 20 years later, with no replacement. That has been to the detriment of the town: for well over a decade, people in Burntwood have had to see their doctor in portacabins in the leisure centre car park.”
“The announcement today of the £120 million fund to support the UK ceramics industry will be so welcome in my part of Staffordshire. Armitage Shanks is often not spoken of in the same breath as ceramics—partly because of the excellent advocacy of the Stokies and my hon. Friends the Members for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee) and for Amber Valley (Linsey Farnsworth)—but ceramics goes much further than flatware. The sanitary ware that comes out of Armitage Shanks is world class, but it is much, much more than that. It is the identity of that village, and it is an iconic British brand. The Chancellor’s support for Armitage Shanks and the rest of the ceramics industry will go down so well, not just with those workers and the GMB workers who are part of that factory, but with my community, so may I thank the Chancellor for her intervention?”
“3. How he plans to work with the Prime Minister’s adviser on women and girls to help tackle violence against women and girls through the criminal justice system.”
“In March, the Prime Minister agreed to meet survivors of abuse by Mohammed Fayed, the former owner of Harrods, Fulham football club and other businesses. Almost 500 survivors have come forward, all of whom have been waiting for years, and in many cases decades, for justice. Can the Minister confirm whether the Prime Minister’s adviser on women and girls will attend that meeting, and what progress has been made on scheduling it?”
“My constituents are fed up. Can the Secretary of State give some reassurance that the ongoing works at Streethay—that is one of only two places north of Curzon Street where work is continuing—will be completed on time, by October? What mitigations will the Department put in place for communities like mine, who are significantly impacted? By the sounds of it, it could be a third of a century from the start of this process before the trains actually start travelling through our part of the world.”
“The Secretary of State will not be surprised to see me rise yet again to raise issues with HS2. She is right to be angry about the scale of the failings laid out in the reports published today. She is angry, and I am angry, but our anger pales into insignificance when compared to the anger of my constituents, who have had to fight for 17 years as a result of the failures of HS2 Ltd. We heard today in the announcement that we potentially face another 13 years before we even carry on with the work north of Curzon Street to connect to Handsacre junction—and all of that, by the way, is north of Birmingham. The community is furious. My constituents are the most, or certainly some of the most, impacted by HS2. Just last month, the A38 going past Lichfield was closed, forcing 70,000 vehicles a day on to roads in the city.”
“That is specifically because of the speeds this thing was designed to go at, so mitigations could not be put in, and it had to go through areas of outstanding natural beauty. It could not avoid problems, and that has led to some of the cost overruns. Does she agree with me that the decision to try to make it the fastest railway in the world was a mistake when it was made, and that it was a mistake not to unwind that sooner?”
“The hon. Member is being very generous with her time, and I appreciate that. In south Staffordshire we have had massive problems with HS2, and particularly with the route that it has had to take. It is on a very wide arc around the city of Lichfield, but because of the speeds it has to go at, the corners cannot be too tight. So there is a really significant piece of engineering work, with a tunnel having to go under the A38, a railway and a canal—all at different heights. That was specifically because it could not be moved further away, so it had to go under two slip roads as well as the main carriageway. It has been an absolute nightmare. That recently led to the closure of the A38, with 70,000 vehicles a day pushed on to my local roads, which has been really difficult.”
“That is part of what the Clive Treacey checklist advises NHS trusts to follow. I again thank the hon. Gentleman and invite him to do all he can alongside me—and, I am sure, many other Members—to make sure that every single NHS trust introduces and follows the Clive Treacey checklist to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”
“I thank the hon. Member for bringing to light the Clive Treacey checklist, because it is a really fitting way to remember Clive. It is important to remember, however, that although it is named after Clive, he is not defined by his epilepsy; he was not defined by his learning disability and he does not need to be defined by his death. Clive loved to paint and was a really talented gardener, and his family are eager that he be remembered for those memories that they carry of him. I want to make sure that I take the opportunity to put that on the record. It is also very clear from the Clive Treacey checklist that SUDEP risk for people with learning disabilities and epilepsy is three times higher—300%—but the actual risk of SUDEP can be cut by 84% if people have an annual check-up.”
“I thank the Minister for delineating everything that the Government are doing to support people with epilepsy. I was fortunate enough to secure an Adjournment debate a couple of months ago to talk about the Clive Treacey safety checklist. The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow South West (Dr Ahmed), said at the Dispatch Box that he expects every NHS trust to follow that checklist. Does she agree with him, and will she send the message that all trusts must follow that checklist?”
“The suggestion that there should be a national body to oversee wheelchair provision is one that would give my constituents and indeed all our constituents confidence that somebody will examine this issue, and that failings will not continue to be brushed under the carpet and ignored. They simply cannot be ignored. Wheelchairs are far too important to far too many people, and I place on the record my absolute support for the proposal.”
“We can never look at one person in isolation—it takes a family to raise a child and it takes a community for us all to be part of, and these effects have really serious impacts on entire communities as well as on wheelchair users themselves. This is really not good enough. Staffordshire ICB has finally stood up and made the decision to retender the contract and award it elsewhere. However, my major concern is that this contract was not working, it was clear that it was not working and none of the interventions made it work. That is a real problem. It appears that, if everything works fine, everything works fine—but if things start to go wrong, what is the mechanism to fix them? How do we make sure that things are fixed?”
“The ombudsman asked AJM to investigate but, from what we are hearing today and have heard previously in this place, sufficient action has not been taken across the country. In Staffordshire, the local NHS commissioners issued AJM with a performance notice last August and have now retendered the contract, but until October the contract remains with AJM and, unless massive changes are made, it will continue to fail my constituents and those around the country. AJM has clearly lost the trust of people in our area. The long waits have had a really serious impact not just on the physical health of wheelchair users, but on their mental health and dignity, and on their friends, their families and the community that support them.”
“We are unsure of the timeline for when she will get the wheelchair that she needs to be able to live her life. Lisa’s is not an isolated case. It does not surprise me that my hon. Friend the Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Alison Hume), who we have just heard from, has also had problems with AJM. We know that it is a national issue and that AJM is failing the people of Staffordshire. Indeed, I am sure my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Dr Gardner) will raise a similar point shortly. Since 2023, complaints to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman about that firm have shot up. To refer to the point made by the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), it is very clear from looking at that data that there are systemic, nationwide failings.”
“In July 2024 she was referred to AJM, the company contracted to the NHS in Staffordshire at that point to provide wheelchairs. It took almost a year, and Lisa’s family contacting me for help, to even get her measured for an appointment by AJM. She was then told that it would be at least another year before she got the wheelchair that she needs. Without that, she can leave her house only for hospital appointments, because the chair that she had was impacting her breathing and putting her life at risk. AJM did finally provide a better wheelchair in January 2025. It took 18 months—not 18 weeks, but 18 months—and Lisa still did not get the wheelchair she needed. She got a better wheelchair—a less bad wheelchair—but it still did not meet her needs.”
“What a pleasure it is to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Murrison. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for scheduling this debate and my hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis) for all the work he has done not only to secure this debate, but to champion wheelchair users in his constituency and all of ours. We are lucky to have him on the green Benches. As we talk about the provision of wheelchairs across the country, I want to share the story of one of my constituents. Dozens of constituents have written to me, but I want to draw this story out because it is a particularly jarring case of how the system is failing people. My constituent Lisa has a severe condition that affects her nerves. She cannot stand, feed herself or use the bathroom unaided, and she has a tracheotomy to help her breathe.”
“I thank the Minister for his work in setting up the structures fund, which is also important for a bridge in my constituency. That bridge is also grade II listed, but is older than Hammersmith bridge and is the largest cast iron bridge in the country. The Minister will be awaiting an application to that fund from Staffordshire county council. In response to comments made by the Opposition spokesperson, the council, which is under Conservative control, did not approach me before the spending review, meaning that we are having to go through the structures fund. I look forward to seeing the Department’s reply to that hopefully successful application once it goes in.”
“T7. My constituents across Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages are obviously concerned about the situation in Iran, but they are also concerned about its impact on the cost of living at home. What steps is the Department taking to ensure that commodities such as fuel, including red diesel, and fertiliser are able to reach market and to keep prices from rising further?”
“Q15. Tomorrow night I will be hosting a public meeting about the chronically delayed Burntwood health centre. For well over a decade, people in my town have been let down by the lack of a replacement facility. We thought there might be light at the end of the tunnel when we were promised it by the end of 2025, but the end of last year came and went—no health centre and not even planning permission. Does the Prime Minister agree with me that the county council, now led by Reform, has promised a new health centre to the people of Burntwood and that it must ensure there are no more broken promises to my constituents?”
“I again thank the ministerial team for what they have done to get the midlands rail hub project so far along so quickly, with funding now unlocked for the west and central sections, but the east section is dragging ever so slightly behind. Will they look again at whether the south Staffordshire line can be included in rail hub east, to unlock the wonderful benefits of cross-regional travel via that line for my constituents and those in Uttoxeter and Derby?”
“Not for the first time at business questions, I am raising the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership, which is a multi-academy trust in the west midlands that runs six schools in my constituency, and 24 in total. The trust found itself in significant financial distress at the start of this year, leading to nine days of strike action across a number of schools. The new leadership at the trust is working hard to rectify that; it has taken great strides, and the strikes are now paused. The major blockage for the trust now, though, is servicing a debt that was accrued under previous leadership. Will the Leader of the House secure a meeting for me and other affected Members with the Department for Education to discuss what we can do about how that debt is restructured, with the aim of saving up to 23 teachers’ jobs?”
“The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to encourage Staffordshire County Council to place a 7.5 tonne weight limit upon the section of Walsall Road between its southerly junction with Limburg Avenue and its northerly junction with Friary Road and that ongoing section of Friary Road to its junction with Bowling Green Roundabout. And the petitioners remain, etc.] [P003181]”
“And the petitioners remain, etc.” Following is the full text of the petition: [The petition of residents of the constituency of Lichfield, Declares that Walsall Road, a residential C road, is being used as a shortcut by medium and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) throughout the day and night, causing significant disturbance to residents; further declares that there is a purpose-built road for such vehicles, the A461, running parallel to Walsall Road and that despite clear signage indicating that HGVs should use the A461, drivers of these vehicles consistently choose to drive along Walsall Road; further declares that whereas the A461 has relatively few dwellings along the carriageway, well set back from the road, with wide verges, footpaths and a cycleway, Walsall Road is narrower, has dwellings almost continuously along the carriageway, close to the road, often with only a narrow footpath with useable width 90cm in places, and that as a result of all this, residents of Walsall Road suffer unnecessary noise day and night, the traffic is causing vibration damage to properties on the road, and pedestrians, including children walking on and crossing Walsall Road to reach Christ Church Primary School, are often little more than one metre from HGVs, many of which exceed the 30mph speed limit; and further declares that despite the nuisance and danger caused by this state of affairs, Staffordshire County Council Highways Department has not taken action to improve the situation for residents on the road in question.”
“I am sure that right hon. and hon. Members from across the House agree that one of the best things about this job is working with people in our constituencies who see something that they want to change and do something about it. I hold in my hands a wonderful example of 256 residents who want to do exactly that for Walsall Road in Lichfield. The petition states: “The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to encourage Staffordshire County Council to place a 7.5 tonne weight limit upon the section of Walsall Road between its southerly junction with Limburg Avenue and its northerly junction with Friary Road and that ongoing section of Friary Road to its junction with Bowling Green Roundabout.”