Express & Star 2024 West Midlands Mayoral Hustings

Express & Star

Express & Star 2024 West Midlands Mayoral Hustings at the University of Wolverhampton

Transcript

00:00:00I'd like to thank the University for helping to host this. As I said, the University is

00:00:12a huge part of this city, and we really value it as a newspaper, and the partnership we

00:00:19have with it, so we're very thankful to the University. This is going to be a fascinating

00:00:24mayoral election. Obviously, there's huge issues locally that many of you may want to

00:00:31ask questions about, but also on a national platform, the outcome of this election has

00:00:37been monitored very, very closely to see which way it goes. So it's been very, very interesting,

00:00:43and we'll have a good, lively debate today. Finally, I just wanted to mention Pete Maidley,

00:00:51who was our political editor, who would have loved this occasion. Very sadly, he died very

00:00:56recently, actually at his funeral yesterday. So I'd finally just like to pay tribute to

00:01:02Pete, as I say, he would have loved this kind of occasion, and very sadly, in many ways,

00:01:09this is in memory of him. Can I introduce Mark Andrews, who's our senior correspondent,

00:01:14who will be your host for today, and I'll pass on to you, Mark. Thank you.

00:01:19Thank you very much. Thank you all for attending, and thank you very much for the candidates who

00:01:23are coming here. There wouldn't be hostings without them, so thank you very much for that.

00:01:28First of all, let me introduce you to the candidates in alphabetical order. We have

00:01:34Siobhan Harper-Noones, who's standing for the Green Party. We have Richard Parker,

00:01:38who's standing for the Liber Party. Andy Street, who is the incumbent mayor, and he's the

00:01:43Conservative candidate. We have Sonny Burke, who's a Liberal Democrat candidate, and we have

00:01:50Elaine Williams, who is standing for Reform UK. We also have the other candidates, the

00:01:57independent Ahmed Yacoub. He hasn't turned up as yet, so if he comes in, he can give his speech,

00:02:03but we're going to get on as it was. To begin with, what we're going to do is we're going to

00:02:09invite each of the candidates to give a two-minute presentation on why you should give

00:02:17them your vote in the election. After 1 minute 45 seconds, I will raise my hand to indicate to the

00:02:25speaker that it's time to lap up. At two minutes, I'll stand up and say, please finish your sentence,

00:02:31and if it goes 15 seconds, I'm afraid I will interrupt and say, please sit down. If you can

00:02:38all stick to the timings, that would make it very helpful for everybody here, I think.

00:02:43After we have done that, we'll be putting your questions that you've submitted to the panel as

00:02:48well, and we'll give them each one minute to respond to those questions. I have a strict

00:02:55timetable. If there is time, I will invite people if they want to briefly respond. We want sentencing

00:03:00advice, but as it's a very strict timetable, we might not be able to do that. At the end, again,

00:03:06time permitting, we will then invite them to give one minute at the end, and that will be

00:03:11done in reverse order of these speaking at the start. If you need the toilets, I'm telling you,

00:03:19either the double doors at the back, straight to the end of the corridor, and on the left,

00:03:23they are well signposted. I think that's everything. Let's begin with the

00:03:29opening statements. Before you arrive, we had a draw for the speakers. The first one to speak

00:03:40is Elaine Williams, who is speaking for Reform UK. A warm welcome to Elaine Williams.

00:03:59My name is Elaine Williams. I am Reform UK's candidate to become the next West Midlands Mayor.

00:04:09Let's start with travel. There must be a total rethink on travel to deliver a fully integrated,

00:04:15efficient, safer and more effective transport system that works, that is cost effective.

00:04:21Last year, the Express and Star newspaper reported the cost of the Wensford to Briley Hill Metro

00:04:26extension had increased by 45% to £650 million. The Metro is a fixed asset and trams cannot be

00:04:35rerouted elsewhere. Ongoing costs would also be prohibitive, as track has to be replaced.

00:04:41The more track, the higher the cost. In contrast, buses can travel anywhere, and smaller buses can

00:04:47be used, such as those the size of community buses, on routes where there are fewer people.

00:04:52Bus routes can be flexible, unlike fixed tram lines. In addition, these Metro schemes are

00:04:57wrecking the environment by destroying open spaces and nature. Funds being spent in the

00:05:02West Midlands must be directed for the benefit of the people, rather than having vanity transport

00:05:07schemes. Continuing with travel, local businesses are being severely affected by the introduction

00:05:13of arbitrary traffic restrictions, which reduce public access to their businesses and have made

00:05:18travel more difficult. The Department for Communities and Local Government produced a

00:05:23booklet in 2017 called Devolution, a Mayor for the West Midlands, what does it mean? In that

00:05:30booklet, it said that the Mayor manages local transport and the most important local roads to

00:05:34help people get around more easily. However, these schemes, such as low traffic neighbourhood schemes

00:05:40and 20 mile an hour speed limits in certain areas, make travel around our towns and cities

00:05:45unnecessarily difficult. I will change these detrimental measures, invest in our town centres

00:05:51and revitalise our high streets to allow our businesses to flourish and thrive, and seek to

00:05:56encourage more businesses to invest in the West Midlands. Hopefully you'll ask me some questions

00:06:00on housing later, because that's another issue that I'd like to talk about, and I look forward

00:06:05to taking your questions today. Thank you. Thank you very much, and that was beautifully timed,

00:06:10so you can keep that up, that's excellent, thank you very much. Okay, so the second candidate to

00:06:14speak will be the Labour candidate, Mr Richard Parker. Okay, thank you very much everyone, thanks

00:06:20for coming to this Hustings in Wolverhampton, and thank you for the University for hosting us.

00:06:25I'm Richard Parker, the Labour candidate standing for Metro Mayor on the 2nd of May.

00:06:31I've lived and worked in the West Midlands all my adult life. I raised my family here, and my son

00:06:37now works in the aerospace industry in this great city. I've worked in business all my life, but what

00:06:43I'm doing now is the most important thing I've done in my life. During my working life, I've

00:06:48brought over a billion pounds worth of investment into the region, and I led the advisory team that

00:06:53worked on the first devolution deal, and put the combined authority together. When we did that,

00:06:58we had hoped that that deal would deliver a better future West Midlands. Sadly, under 14 years of a

00:07:04Tory government, and almost eight years now of a Tory Mayor, this region's gone backwards, not

00:07:08forwards. We've got the worst performing regional economy in the country, we've got more young people

00:07:16out of work than any other region in the country, and we've got a quarter of our workforce with low

00:07:20skills or no skills, and that blights their lives. And most of those people come from the poorest

00:07:25parts of the region, and too many of them come from the black country. So it's time for a fresh

00:07:31start. I will do things differently. I plan to work in partnership with others, leaders and

00:07:35organisations and vice chancellors and businesses around this region, to get this region back on its

00:07:40feet. I plan to be accessible, accountable and visible in every part of this region, and before

00:07:46I made any policy pledges, I committed to having a mayoral base in the black country, and I will do

00:07:51that. In terms of my key priorities, I will create 150,000 new jobs and apprenticeships, giving

00:07:57particularly young people the best start in life they can get. We will revitalise our high streets,

00:08:02bring increasing footfall back to our high streets across the region, and invest in our

00:08:07great markets like the ones we've got in Bilston, Bloxwich and indeed in Wolverhampton. It's time

00:08:12for a fresh start. I intend to have a social housing programme and deliver 2,000 social housing

00:08:18units a year. The West Midlands deserves better. It deserves a Labour mayor. Working with you,

00:08:24I will do my very best for you. Thank you. Thank you very much, and our third speaker is the incumbent

00:08:30mayor who's standing for the Conservatives and his streets. Thank you very much. Good afternoon

00:08:36everybody. First of all to Ibrahim and to the two Marks, thank you for bringing us together.

00:08:44So the pitch for obviously the sitting mayor as to why one should be re-elected is very

00:08:49straightforward. I have done what I said I was going to do, and therefore you can trust me

00:08:54that I will do what I say I'm going to do going forward. If you look across all the main

00:08:59deliverables for the mayor and the combined authority, we have made strong progress. Just a

00:09:04summary, I said a few years ago after Covid 100,000 jobs in two years. That we have done. We have the

00:09:10best qualified workforce that we have ever had in this region, working very closely with all of the

00:09:15colleges across the black country. We are the only region to achieve our housing target, doubling the

00:09:21number of homes. A third of those that we fund are affordable and not a single blade of grass in the

00:09:27green belt of the black country has been sacrificed to achieve it. On transport we have the biggest

00:09:32investment we have seen for generations and of course this year the black country will finally

00:09:37be joined up when the metro opens to Dudley. People have talked about it for 30 years, it's taken the

00:09:41mayor to do it. All of that's been achieved without charging you a single penny in mayoral tax. How is

00:09:48that possible? Record inward investment from the private sector, northern Scotland and Wales

00:09:53combined and a new £10 billion of additional government investment we've brought in. So lots

00:09:58done but much more to do. The commitments, building on the momentum we have, 425,000 jobs and training

00:10:05opportunities, a number based on what's already been achieved. Spending that £6 billion war chest

00:10:10in transport across rail, tram, bus and cycle and introducing fair capping across the whole network

00:10:17and then in housing continuing our record but stepping decisively into social housing

00:10:22because others have failed, tripling the rate there and 50,000 homes being retrofitted in the

00:10:28next four years. Everything I commit, funded in the detailed manifesto because we have already

00:10:34negotiated with government the funds we will need. Thank you very much indeed.

00:10:43And our fourth candidate is Siobhan Harper-Nunes who's standing for the Green Party.

00:10:53Go ahead. Hello everybody and what a glorious day and what a glorious university

00:11:02to have been on campus. Trust me we've been around everywhere. Thank you for having us today. The

00:11:07reason I joined the Green Party is because I got very tired of watching two parties make a mess

00:11:16of the country I live in and the country I love. The Green Party stands for social justice

00:11:24first and foremost. It stands for grassroots democracy secondly. It stands for environmentalism.

00:11:34We live on this glorious planet. We need to look after it only to survive ourselves.

00:11:39I have spent my entire life supporting communities to build the projects and build

00:11:48the initiatives they want from the grassroots up and as mayor I want to do so much more starting

00:11:57with working with communities. In this region in the last few years we have become the worst region

00:12:05in the United Kingdom for child poverty. We have the worst housing stock in this region

00:12:15in all of Europe. Our local services are being cut to the bone and on the climate we have made

00:12:24progress a little bit here and a little bit there but not systematically addressing the very real

00:12:32problem of climate change which we have to address now. We also have a mayor that does not

00:12:40listen to its communities, does not allow a system of democracy where people on the ground

00:12:48make the decisions of how their money is spent. Vote for me and we will look at a mass program

00:12:55to retrofit people's homes and a serious investment in the transportation system of this

00:13:02region. Thank you. Thank you very much and finally the final candidate to speak will be

00:13:07Sonny Burke who is standing for the Liberal Democrats. So you've got positives, you've got

00:13:15negatives, you've got all sorts going on here. You've got two basically parties here. You've got

00:13:20Conservatives saying one thing and you've got Labour saying another thing. But look,

00:13:25putting all the rhetoric to one side, just seriously have a think about this. In 2010 we

00:13:30had the Brown government and the Labour government at the time under Brown left the country in a

00:13:36state of devastation. We've now had 14 odd years of a Conservative government and we're now

00:13:43suffering high inflation, high mortgage rates, cost of living prices, energy companies making

00:13:50money hand over fist. And if you look at the transport network in the West Midlands there's

00:13:59nothing positive being done for young people or for businesses. So when it comes to transport I

00:14:04want to integrate all transport systems within the West Midlands, number one. Number two, I want to

00:14:08make travel free for young people completely and if they're at university that's really important

00:14:13to me that you get to university for free and get back. Similar things have already been done in

00:14:17Europe. And thirdly, I want to have a tap and go system. Now you're going to hear a lot about,

00:14:23like Andy said, the Metro in Dundee is going to be joined up at some point and another place is the

00:14:28Camp Hill Port will be opened in some places at some point, that's the other side of Birmingham.

00:14:33But the thing is none of this has been done yet and I think it should have been done years ago.

00:14:39What we've got in the West Midlands is over-engineered rail projects, over-engineered

00:14:44tram projects and nothing being delivered to you. So my plan is to actually get things delivered,

00:14:49get things done. I'm not going to talk about 10 billion here or a billion here or 100 million

00:14:55there. I'm simply the guy, if you want to vote for somebody who's going to get the job done,

00:15:00get things moving, get housing built, get social housing built and the Liberal Democrats 150,000

00:15:06affordable housing, vote Liberal Democrat. And finally I'll leave you with this, the nation,

00:15:10Mark is right, is watching and if the nation is watching, you guys have to send a message,

00:15:15Liberal Democrats is the way to go. Okay, thank you very much all of you for giving us your address,

00:15:21thank you very much for that. So we'll turn to our questions from the audience now. Our first

00:15:28question comes from the Reverend Sarah Schofield. Would you like to put your question to the panel?

00:15:36Sorry, I was too busy summarising the different comments for someone who can't be here.

00:15:40So hello, welcome to University of Wolverhampton. I'm the front-runner lead captain here,

00:15:44this is my seat colleague on my side here. You all talked about public transport, which is brilliant.

00:15:51As one of the people who is a non-driver and not by choice because I have a disability,

00:15:57and in London public transport, cycling and the walking infrastructure has been transformed but

00:16:07in the black country bus and cycle routes are pretty much the same as when I moved here from

00:16:11Manchester in 2006. It still takes 45 minutes to get to Walsall by bus. When the train is

00:16:17reinstituted I think it's only going to be a couple of times an hour. It's almost impossible

00:16:23to cross the region without going through Birmingham. You change at Smedwick Golden

00:16:28Bridge as a train but that's a nightmare as well. So as a public transport user yourself,

00:16:34what do you think are the key challenges for people who cannot drive, even if they wanted to,

00:16:40and what will you do to improve cross-region transport?

00:16:44Thank you very much. We have had another similar question on this phone which has been emailed in

00:16:49from a reader. So I will put that to you and I'll give you an OK. It is from reader Sonia Wilkins

00:16:54who says, talks about scheduled buses not turning up, ghost buses with no notice on the electronic

00:17:00boards, bus station staff unable to help. It is of particular concern for women and girls

00:17:06travelling at night. What will you do to address this? So I'll give you each a minute, 30 seconds

00:17:11on this, starting with Richard Parker this time please. So if you'd like to.

00:17:16OK, delighted to take this question. I've been very, very clear from the outset.

00:17:22My priority is to bring the buses back into public control like they've done in Greater

00:17:26Manchester to great success in Leeds City region, Liverpool City region and doing it in South

00:17:32Yorkshire too. When we talk to people across this region, a common story is they can't get

00:17:37to work, they can't get to college, they can't get to the high street, they can't get to the doctors

00:17:42because the bus system, the transport system fails. That is wrong and it's the poorest people

00:17:48in this region, people who have cars or mobility issues that can't get around and it blights

00:17:53people's lives. I will bring the buses back into public control. It means that people in this

00:17:58region will help design the network of the future, will increase connectivity, reliability. I will

00:18:05be accountable as Mayor for the performance, not National Express and we'll make the biggest

00:18:09difference we can to ordinary people's lives. That's one of the biggest impacts we can make

00:18:15in really short time scale to this region and that's what I plan to do.

00:18:19I was in Sully Hole recently, a prosperous bit of the region, talking to the Chamber of Commerce.

00:18:25Their biggest concern was that there are kids growing up in North Sully Hole in those 1970s

00:18:30council estates that can't get access to the jobs that are available in JLR, in the airport,

00:18:35in the tax centre because the buses don't run. For National Express to run those buses,

00:18:41those routes aren't viable. It's not just about viability, it's about the social and economic

00:18:46impact of decisions made by that private company. We cannot be in a position where the biggest

00:18:51difference we can make to young people's lives is getting access to that first job and that

00:18:55isn't happening because the bus network and the transport system isn't working for them. So we'll

00:19:00have a very new approach and make the biggest difference to people's lives. I want to be in

00:19:04every day mayor for every day people in this region and to do that the everyday economy needs

00:19:08to work. Thank you very much, thanks a lot. Okay and next speaker on that will be Andy Street.

00:19:17Yeah of course. So Sarah, you say what's the approach to this? I think there are three parts

00:19:21for the approach. The first is the physical network, the infrastructure. That's why it's

00:19:25so important to get the cash in and just to give you the number on that, we're now investing about

00:19:29400 million pounds a year in the network in terms of capital. The year before I was mayor it was 38

00:19:35million pounds and that tenfold increase is the difference we've made and that's why a lot of the

00:19:41network is still as it was when I went to school, when you talk about years in the past. But if you

00:19:45think of the things that are opening next, cross black country transport straight to Dudley, the

00:19:50metro, people said it would never happen. It is happening and the Walsall Wolverhampton line, yes

00:19:53you're right there's only two trains an hour initially, but connecting those two, I'll say

00:19:57cities, I know Walsall's not a city, very very quickly. So that infrastructure. The next thing is

00:20:02fares and we have lower bus fares now than we had before I became mayor and we have lower fares

00:20:07despite what everybody said than London and Manchester for a weekly and a monthly and an

00:20:10annual travel card. And then we have to of course have clean vehicles, new modern vehicles. We're

00:20:16seeing the huge investment in that, just whether it's 700 million spent on our rail fleet, whether

00:20:20it's 300 new electric buses just being ordered, the most modern fleets anywhere in the country

00:20:25and we know ridership goes up then. Then we have to have safety and that's why we've come to the

00:20:29second half of the question, that is why we now have a whole troop of transport safety officers

00:20:34riding our network, making sure that crime is minimised on the network and crime is actually

00:20:39going down on the transport network to give people confidence. Just coming to the franchising thing

00:20:44because I've heard everything that Richard has said, but one thing that has to be called out,

00:20:47at what cost Richard? I've asked you to publish your numbers for how much this will cost,

00:20:52you have refused to do so and all I would say is it's an unfunded promise, probably about £143

00:20:58million. That's what it spent cost in Manchester. £143 million is what it cost in Manchester,

00:21:03where is the money coming from here? You need to explain why it is so different then.

00:21:10Thank you very much. Our third speaker will be Siobhan Harpenneum.

00:21:24Transport is not one of our priorities, it is our priority because it ticks two enormous boxes.

00:21:33The first is connecting communities within the region to each other, to job opportunities,

00:21:40to training opportunities, creating jobs, but also by having a clean, green, efficient,

00:21:47well-connected transportation system, we are reducing the impact we are making on our climate.

00:21:55It's top priority for us. The way we would do this is, one, use our existing transportation

00:22:03budgets to invest in making sure especially those disconnected communities that don't

00:22:11have a bus service or don't have a rail service connected are prioritised, but also by lobbying

00:22:20central government to get our fair share of transportation. Despite having a Conservative

00:22:27mayor working with a Conservative government, we get 50% of the allocated budget that London gets

00:22:35per capita for transportation. That's a really big deal. Thirdly, whatever investment we put

00:22:43into transportation, at least 25% of that would be into walkways and cycleways for non-car users.

00:22:51Getting car users off the road, giving them viable alternatives, is also going to be a major output

00:22:58for our health and safety outcomes. Thank you very much. Our final speaker on this question

00:23:06will be Sonny Virk. Oh, I'm so sorry, I am so sorry.

00:23:18Next speaker will be Sonny Virk, who's speaking for the Liberal Democrats.

00:23:22You've heard Andy and you've heard Richard speak and you saw this exchange. It's interesting,

00:23:30but this is what you're going to get if you get a Labour mayor or if you get a Conservative mayor.

00:23:34Whoever's in government or whoever's in a local authority, they just can't work with each other.

00:23:39The Liberal Democrats are the only most sensible party that can work across party to get things

00:23:44done. Your Metro mayor has to get things done. I'll answer the questions directly. Firstly,

00:23:48telematics. I want all bus stops to be modernised. I want there to be a display that tells you how

00:23:53many minutes away your bus is. I want operators to be fined if there's ghost buses and there's

00:23:59delays. I want an Uber-style app which you can look at and you can see exactly how far your bus

00:24:04is from your particular bus stop. These are practical solutions. You're not going to get

00:24:09this from the other parties, number one. Number two, I'm going to say this. I want all infrastructure

00:24:13to be joined up. Andy, a single in London on a bus is £1.75. A single on a bus in the West Midlands

00:24:22is £2. London is cheaper. Say again? For one type of single. Never mind, too much detail.

00:24:29One type of single. We don't have the cheapest singles. We don't. I want a tap-and-go system

00:24:35which allows you to go, sit down, come off, get onto a tram, get onto a railway and use it all

00:24:41as an integrated network. I know North West Warsaw and North East Birmingham don't have

00:24:47good transport networks. Your mayor has to deliver this. I'm trying to be really positive here. If

00:24:53you really want serious funding from government to actually get things done. Andy's right. I don't

00:24:58know. He says he's had £400 million. Does it feel like £400 million's been spent on the buses? I

00:25:03don't feel like £400 million's been spent on the buses. I have to ride around in my electric car.

00:25:07Another minute. Sorry, 30 seconds. No, time's up now, sorry. Oh, 1.30. Well, it's all over-engineered

00:25:14anyway, so I'll just get stuff done. Okay, thank you, Richard. Just to clear up any confusion,

00:25:19what we're going to do is the first speaker from each question will go last on the next one,

00:25:23so that's the way it's working out, just so nobody has any advantage of speaking first, last,

00:25:29or whatever, so that we get an equal opportunity. So finally, please welcome our next speaker,

00:25:34Elaine Williams. Thank you. So, like you, I live in Warsaw too, and I haven't seen much

00:25:40change because I used to use the bus right up to 2017 when I gave up my job in Birmingham for

00:25:46something else, and it just sounds to me like it's not improved. As I said at the beginning,

00:25:50there must be a total rethink on travel to deliver a fully integrated system, and it has

00:25:55to be safe for everybody to use. So, one of the things that I would look at is we need to actually

00:26:00join up our communities. We need more bus routes, not less bus routes, but we can run them in a

00:26:06different way that's more cost-effective. So, rather than having a double-decker bus, or even

00:26:11your traditional single-decker buses, if we use smaller modes of transport, like community-style

00:26:16buses, to run them to estates where people haven't got a bus service, then we can actually

00:26:20improve and get people out into the community, to the shops, to work more effectively. We need

00:26:27to actually get more of those style buses so we can actually run more routes, and as I say,

00:26:31they should be cost-effective. And actually, also, we need to look at some fare structures as well,

00:26:37because they are different across different areas, but that's something I would need to sit

00:26:42down and talk to the bus companies about. I know Richard wants to bring them back under his control,

00:26:47but I wouldn't want to actually make something under my control as such. What I like to do

00:26:51is I like to work in partnership with people. That's what it's all about. So, we're working

00:26:56in partnership with the businesses and also the communities to get the best deal possible

00:27:01for everybody. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, and next question. First of all, we have

00:27:08limited time, so does anybody want to raise any points on any of this? The gentleman there,

00:27:12please, sir. I'd like to say that on the 15th of June, No Limbs to Help had a mass cycle

00:27:23ride in Wolverhampton using all the existing, the newly installed cycle routes. That's going

00:27:31to be fantastic, and I'd invite everybody, I'm a patron of No Limbs to Help, come and join us

00:27:36from East Park, through the Moray Do, back to East Park. It's going to be a great day. There are cycle lanes,

00:27:43and we're going to use them. Thank you very much. Anybody else? Yes, the lady there, sir.

00:27:47Sorry, my notes on my phone. So, there's been many conversations about tap and go systems or the use

00:27:52of apps to, you know, help people see where businesses are, for example, but I'm wondering

00:27:57what consideration has been made to make these options more accessible for people like the elderly

00:28:01who might not have access to mobile phones or might prefer cash, for example. You know, where

00:28:06are the considerations in those elements? You want me to answer that? So, first, just to say about the

00:28:11status, because lots of room to answer. You are right, tap and go already exists, and most importantly, so

00:28:18does capping. So, if you use the bus system, there's already a capping. So, to the lady's question

00:28:23at the back, one of the most important things is make it accessible via capping. That is already

00:28:27present. The commitment is to make capping work on all parts of the network, rail, tram, bus, even cycle.

00:28:33So, that will take us ahead of London, and we actually have a three-day cap as well for how

00:28:38people work, and that will come in next year across the whole network. That's critical. In terms of

00:28:43elderly, we're absolutely determined to continue to use cash on everything. That has been a decision

00:28:49taken, not just for elderly, but other people who don't have access to cards, and that's been a decision

00:28:52of the board, so we're very, very aware of that. Does anybody else want to respond to that?

00:28:58I will. We need a fully integrated system. I want a tap and go system like they've got in London.

00:29:04You shouldn't need to use a Swiss card. You should be able to use your bank card. Reflectively,

00:29:09giving people easier ways of planning for their routes and capping fares across

00:29:15three key modes of transport, buses, trams, and trains are most critical, but none of that is good

00:29:20enough unless we have a transport system that works for us and encourages people to use it,

00:29:24and at the moment, that is the biggest problem that people tell me they've got in this region.

00:29:28They can't get to work, or to school, or to college. Last week, the week before, Angela Rayner

00:29:34and Lou Hay were here. We went to Perry Park bus station in Birmingham for a visit. We saw two

00:29:40families putting their kids in Ubers to get to school, because public transport wasn't working

00:29:45for them. Can I just say an absolutely efficient transport system that connects us all, absolutely

00:29:52amazing, public control, fantastic, but I would like to see free services for people up to the age

00:29:59of in their mid-20s, and if they're not in employment or in education, continue to be free,

00:30:06and also for the elderly. Ideally, getting to a feasibility of looking at a completely free

00:30:13transportation system in countries around the world where this has been trialled.

00:30:18The returns on investment and the returns on the economy are every pound invested, four pounds

00:30:24returns, in terms of health service outputs, in terms of connectivity, in terms of employability,

00:30:32so ultimately, free, perfect transportation system. Thank you. One of the things you asked

00:30:40about was payment methods, and we need to ensure that we've got all types of payment methods.

00:30:44In some places, you know, you find that you can't pay by cash now, and that does restrict

00:30:49the elderly. We must make sure that we keep cash in absolutely everything, so that, you know,

00:30:54nobody's actually discriminated against, and people can actually pay, so that's what I'm about.

00:30:58We believe that, actually, cash is king, really. Yeah, and Sonny, if you wanted to say something.

00:31:04Totally agree with cash being able to be used on the network.

00:31:09I'm really the only one mentioning telematics and Uber apps, by the way,

00:31:13bar all-star apps, but the only thing I'll say is this. The tap-and-go system isn't integrated

00:31:19across the network. The network meaning, if I want to get on a tyre here in Coventry,

00:31:23I need to be able to get off at Walsall, all on one or two taps, and using different modes

00:31:29of transport. That's not possible. That's what I want to bring. Old age pensioners should be

00:31:35able to have, and social students, so it works on both ends. A lot of them already do. My dad does,

00:31:41thank you for, and all his little friends do as well, so, you know, so you want that to carry on.

00:31:48So, hopefully, that answers your questions. Okay, quickly, anybody else want to, this is

00:31:53the final question on transport, anybody else want to talk about it? No? Okay, so hopefully,

00:31:59that answers your questions. Okay, quickly, anybody else want to, this is the final question

00:32:04on transport, anybody else want to talk about it? No? Okay, we'll move on to question two, then.

00:32:10Our second question comes from Martine Murray.

00:32:17I actually owned the UK's longest-running nightclub to show 50 years pre-lockdown.

00:32:24My question is to the mayors, what will you do to help our seriously struggling hospitality

00:32:29and nightlife? What will you do to bring back the vibrancy that West Midlands needs to have?

00:32:36So, how will you stop our town from becoming just another ghost town?

00:32:41Okay, then, first speaker for this will be Andy Street, if you're,

00:32:46I'll just run to that one. Yes. You've got a minute on this, just one minute. One minute,

00:32:49I've got to be quick, right, okay, great question. So, two things that we are already doing,

00:32:55and then we'll come to something we're going to do. So, the most important thing I can do,

00:32:59if the thing I can do, is get people to become visiting in our towns and cities. So,

00:33:03the whole emphasis around getting this place as a tourist destination, because that drives

00:33:07hospitality so much, critical, and you will have seen the numbers, tourism numbers are now back

00:33:11ahead of the pre-pandemic numbers, and that's thanks to a huge effort around promoting the

00:33:17place literally around the globe. Best increase in tourism numbers anywhere in the UK. Next thing

00:33:22we've got to do is make sure it's easy for locals to get into towns and cities. That's where you

00:33:26come to the whole public transport piece, and the fact that transport fares are lowest, so it takes

00:33:31a very low, it's cheap to go into town, like £2.80 after six o'clock on trains, really important

00:33:37to get people in. Things that we next need to turn to, though, is the whole question of regeneration

00:33:41of our city centres. It's good in some places, Coventry, Birmingham, big proposals there,

00:33:46but where we've actually got to get going is places like Wolverhampton, where we're seeing

00:33:49a hollowing out of the city centres. There's a lot of money already got in place, but what

00:33:53I've committed to is a regeneration czar, you'd almost call it, working with town councils,

00:33:58city councils, to get the money spent on regenerating the town centres. Thank you very

00:34:03much, and the next speaker will be Siobhan Harper-News on that one. I think in terms of

00:34:11investment in small business is key to our priorities, because it's small business,

00:34:17it's local business, that actually creates more jobs and also more inward economic growth.

00:34:25But in terms of nightlife and in terms of various... My head just went to a football match

00:34:33that put on a Bruce Springsteen concert recently, and thinking about some of the comments from that

00:34:39was, couldn't get home. Took me four hours to get home. So the key to a vibrant nightlife and a

00:34:46vibrant inward economy is, one, investment in small businesses, but also investment in that

00:34:51efficient, connected transportation system that gets people from A to B really, really quickly.

00:34:59And also, having read... I was reading the comments from somebody waiting from the number

00:35:06nine bus home from the city centre just to get home. It didn't come. So to know that as a woman,

00:35:12that you can go out, but you can't get home is a terrible thing. So transport, transport,

00:35:18transport, investment in small businesses. Thank you very much. And I'll put that question next to

00:35:23Richard Parker. Okay, thank you very much. It's a great question. So I've got a number of policy

00:35:30plans to deal with this issue. On the buses, running night buses is really, really critical

00:35:35so that people can get out and about and home safely at night. That's very good value. That's

00:35:39really key to this. We listened to lots of people during focus groups and conversations. The issue

00:35:45of our high streets and what's happening in the evening came out as one of the top three issues

00:35:49after a cost of living crisis and other issues on national health service and transport. But I've got

00:35:57plans to revitalise our high streets. We've got several issues there. We want to support

00:36:01traders with markets to increase footfall and put banking hubs in so we increase the

00:36:07attractiveness of people visiting town centres and hopefully improve bus services will help that too.

00:36:13Well I want the West Midlands Growth Company that works under the current mayor largely on inward

00:36:17investment to spend more of its time, a lot more of its time supporting smaller businesses on our

00:36:22high streets and elsewhere, helping those businesses grow and track the funding they need so we can

00:36:27rebuild our economy and our high streets from the bottom up at the inside out. But also importantly,

00:36:32Labour in power want to reform business rates and by the end of the first period of Labour government

00:36:37the plan is to completely overhaul the business rates. So smaller businesses will not

00:36:43bear the burden of business rates like they do today. Thank you very much. Okay and finally

00:36:48could I put that question to Sonny Virk please? Yeah absolutely.

00:36:57I totally get why nightlife is dying in the city centres and I do get that. I have a lot of

00:37:03friends who have bank clubs which are now all closed. I have a friend called Sammy who owned one by Coventry Railway Station.

00:37:10For example you'll know what I want about the Ivy House as well. There's so many more I can just go on and on and on.

00:37:15Firstly I want private cabs to be allowed to use taxi lanes and I want a safe cab policy. So I want

00:37:22every cab, private, Uber otherwise, to have an integrated camera system that's recording all the time

00:37:28so women, young people, when they're drunk let's be frank, will feel safe. So they feel safe going out,

00:37:34they feel safe coming home. Integrated transport network, absolutely it will get people home

00:37:39more night buses. Now we've already got the small business range really. I want to extend

00:37:45that to small and medium-sized businesses and hospitality businesses and give them some grants

00:37:50so they can actually stay afloat and where they're a business which has been in the city for a long

00:37:55time they should be supported by the city. They should be provided the facilities to remain in

00:38:01business and given the breaks that they need to be given and whether that has to be negotiated

00:38:05with energy companies or whatever the case is I want to be the mayor that comes and does that for

00:38:09you. So that will allow businesses to be viable. Second thing is people need a reason to go to the

00:38:16town centre. If we take any town centre or any city centre, let's say Coventry for example,

00:38:20it had a market, it was thriving, people came in but people also need a reason to,

00:38:25after they finish work, feel safe to go for a drink in the town centres.

00:38:29Thank you and Elaine Williams.

00:38:35So one of the reasons why we're seeing a decline in businesses in town centres

00:38:39is that people can't actually access them very well now because there's been too many restrictions

00:38:43that have been put in place. So if you want to go somewhere you find it's very difficult to park.

00:38:47I come here today we had to park quite some way from the venue so we need to actually revisit

00:38:53these restrictions and start taking them away to actually make it easier for people to come

00:38:57and they'll come out and obviously they'll be able to you know spend more money. One of the

00:39:01reasons why we keep seeing people spend money online now. Secondly we need to look at travel

00:39:11because we already talked about that. Travel is one of the key issues that we need to to sort out

00:39:15because obviously if you don't have the travel to go home late at night then people don't want to

00:39:20come out because it's feeling very unsafe out there at the moment. We hear about stabbings

00:39:24and antisocial behaviour and also that needs to be looked at but unfortunately the mayor is

00:39:29that's difficult for the mayor because that would be a police and crime commissioner issue to

00:39:32actually look at the overall crime but I would work with the police and crime commissioner if

00:39:37elected as mayor to actually you know work out some solutions to that as well. We need to get

00:39:41more police that needs to be more safe out on our streets at night for people to come out again.

00:39:46Thank you very much. Okay thank you very much for all those responses. Quickly does anybody

00:39:52want to make any points or with any quick questions on this?

00:39:58No? I saw a gentleman lean there sorry. So the one thing that I've understood from what you guys

00:40:05have said nothing in that has looked at how our pavement structure works particularly for those

00:40:11who are in motorised wheelchairs or are in having really difficulties. Our pavements are shocking

00:40:16and people have real difficulty using mobility aids on our footpaths. In terms of improving the

00:40:22high street, how are we going to look at improving the infrastructure of what's literally on the

00:40:26ground to allow for everybody to have the same access to the high street and beyond?

00:40:31Any planning quickly want to respond to that? I'm very happy to try to respond. So I know you

00:40:37asked about high streets but let me just be very clear first of all transport which we keep coming

00:40:41back to disabled people's access to the city centre really important to all of our new vehicles

00:40:45really easy for disabled people to use. So whether it be modern trains, modern buses,

00:40:50all the features, low floors, audibility, clear signage, so all being thought about in disabled

00:40:55access there. But the answer to your question you are right about the public realm as it's called

00:41:01in our town centres is really important. I'll give you quite a shocking stat across the black

00:41:05country a billion pounds of investment we've got from government and the combined authority and a

00:41:11lot of it is sitting in local authorities funds not yet spent and a lot of it is about improving

00:41:18literally ease with sort of bumps and all of that for disabled across the road all of that sort of

00:41:24stuff and the commitment I give is we will work with every local authority that's what I mean

00:41:28about this czar getting the money spent councils are stretched I accept that that's why we've got

00:41:34to work with and unblock all the things that is preventing that but strangely enough it is not

00:41:39about a lack of funding it is about a lack of ability to spend it really well. I'll just come

00:41:44in the idea that local authorities you know broke local authorities are sitting on a billion pounds

00:41:50that they're not spending is ridiculous absolutely ridiculous it is not it can show you all the

00:41:55funding I'd love to see the figures but it makes no sense to anyone we've got local authorities

00:42:00across the country that are short of four billion pounds 70 are going to go broke in the next 12

00:42:04months the idea they're sitting on those resources your question is a very important one.

00:42:09We do need to make town centres and all our pavements easier for people to access

00:42:21more segregated lanes more safer crossing points to encourage people to use those facilities and

00:42:28I will as part of the work we're doing on town centres and trying to revitalize them we will

00:42:33be looking at accessibility occupation and also how we can increase foot forward usage no living

00:42:40cities that's the answer you need more people living in cities in living cities so what I mean

00:42:45by that is so take your nightclub for example if you've got people living in a city they shop

00:42:51let's say in the same apartment block because there's retail there and there's a nightclub

00:42:56probably close by or within the same apartment block I believe nightclubs and freeholds

00:43:00should still remain to that extent right then you will have more people living there working there

00:43:07and then therefore ergo the pavements will have to improve because you get more people making

00:43:12complaints number one number two more lighting solar lighting so solar lighting in town centres

00:43:19I'm really keen to have solar paneled lighting throughout every town centre

00:43:23every city centre in the west midlands

00:43:36but I'm going to say one of the things

00:43:45Birmingham City Council is bankrupt they are sitting on a certain degree of funds which could

00:43:50have been used for improving can you just be clear what's this certain degree tell me please

00:43:56I don't know I can't work out your figures I've got a billion thrown here 10 billion here 400

00:44:00million there I don't know what's going on can I just say this is why we need change a different

00:44:08approach altogether to politics an approach that as actually has the solution at the heart of our

00:44:15vision not the oh who did this and who cheated that etc it's about the solution and working with

00:44:21communities but first of all in answer to your question people go out more when they've got more

00:44:27money at the end of so we need investment in jobs in people's pockets if we're talking about

00:44:34one in two children is living in poverty those parents are not hanging out in nightclubs at night

00:44:39they are not part of the cafe society they are not spending money in our high streets and we're

00:44:44seeing it all the way through Coventry Dudley Sandwell if you go down the high streets you're

00:44:50seeing charity shops you're seeing takeouts you're seeing gambling shops and you're seeing empty

00:44:56billboards those are the signs of our deprivation we need to invest in our communities in our jobs

00:45:03in the infrastructure within the region to actually put money back into people's pockets

00:45:08that's when they go out and start spending I think mrs williams wanted to go back to your

00:45:13question about making it accessible to everybody I'm standing to actually you know fight for what's

00:45:18right for the people you and other people need different things and we need to make sure as part

00:45:22of the whole system that we look at that but when we're actually looking at some you know how we got

00:45:26to say good access the roads where that where the curbs go down there mustn't be blocked there must

00:45:31be penalties if people block them because I know that's an issue when you can't get um you know a

00:45:36wheelchair up there or down or down a ramp we've got to be you know mindful of everything that

00:45:41everybody needs so we can actually build better communities and get people back into town centres

00:45:45okay go on can I make one 10 second observation to answer the question that was put to me very

00:45:50directly in my manifesto it lists out exactly how much money every local authority in the

00:45:56west midlands has been allocated for city centre or town centre regeneration it's all there listed

00:46:03out the total is over a billion pounds I'm not having a cheap pop local authorities it's hard

00:46:08to spend it well I'm saying we will work with them to get that job done that billion pounds

00:46:13is available to us it is frankly much more and we'll come through anything any of us are going

00:46:18to say today all recorded in detail in the manifesto okay we've got one minute anybody

00:46:23quickly wants to make up the observation if you've done done madam um a friend's uh 10 year

00:46:31old business recently went under because the international property company they own the site

00:46:35which is rented 300 the electric cinema has gone in Birmingham again because of it

00:46:41as a mayor well hopefully how do you confront that when when our cities and towns are owned

00:46:49by people on the other side of the planet how does a 50 year old life club see its 60th birthday

00:46:54if you're up against that and it's a question I ask with sympathy because whatever you want to do

00:47:00somebody else owns our cities very briefly very briefly yeah of course but I don't mind

00:47:06answering the question because it's actually a really good example of what the mayor can do with

00:47:11soft power and you can't stop every private transaction of course and your question

00:47:15acknowledges that but you can you do have a power to convene so literally yesterday

00:47:19all of the landowners along station street in Birmingham where the electric sits for the crown

00:47:24the electric and of course the old rep we brought them together with the property companies and

00:47:29said what are we going to do collectively and the truth is you need to have a much bigger vision

00:47:34for that space you won't solve this just by allowing a tussle between the landlord and the

00:47:38tenant over one piece and we try to see that bigger picture and a brilliant example of that

00:47:43of course would be the way we've supported commentary city centre regeneration 113 million

00:47:47pounds put on the table it wouldn't be happening without the combined authority making that money

00:47:51available mr burke say his hand up mr burke no I was going to say I mentioned the electric cinema

00:47:55that's been bought by developers and they're looking to redevelop the various parts of the

00:48:00queensway as well so you know we have this problem also in Coventry we have this problem everywhere

00:48:04you've got these old buildings a lot of them should be listed and they're not you have to

00:48:08I think I'm going to agree with Andy on this we have to work with developers to see how you can

00:48:12protect the existing businesses to keep them in there if they're private property to that extent

00:48:17I think there should be a degree of and I've already said this before if there's an existing

00:48:20business that's been there for some time I'm also already got my guys my people looking at

00:48:25putting something into place called heritage business protection which is something we want

00:48:30to bring in to protect businesses in town centres that have been there for more than five decades

00:48:35so that is the sort of thing we're looking at doing moving forward it's something that will

00:48:39work it's a it's a positive step towards something that we we get this a lot of people wanting to

00:48:45protect the heritage and the streets and the pavements and the areas they know and understand

00:48:50get that completely we're we're indicative to speak yes I'd just like to say a few things

00:48:56I've planned to put with my team put together a list a register of heritage heritage assets across

00:49:01the west midlands understand the ownership of those assets and the current viability of them

00:49:08and there is a way of working with planners to restrict future use and development those assets

00:49:14that is the obvious way to do it because those owners only plan to sell those assets and demolish

00:49:19them because they feel confident they can get planning to redevelop them there is an ability

00:49:24I think to work system-wide to restrict some of the challenges we face in some of our town centres

00:49:30and the use of those assets to ensure that this reason is this region isn't blighted by simply

00:49:36more apartment buildings or or office blocks and retain some of those assets in their existing use

00:49:43for as long as possible because the loss of them is a real detriment to our communities

00:49:48and they and other cultural diversity across the region. I was going to say as a small business

00:49:54owner myself I under 15 years of conservative rule which most people think associate conservatives

00:50:01with investment in business it is not it's investment in multinational business not in

00:50:06local business there have been very few grants available for local businesses since covid and

00:50:14most of us who borrowed bbl back in whenever it was have just started paying it back the point is

00:50:21the way to boost a local economy to is invest in local businesses local services by creating jobs

00:50:31in your local economy by putting money back into people's pockets so that they can spend spend spend

00:50:37in the locality if they are well connected. So Mrs Willard did you want to say anything?

00:50:43So yes regarding raising rents I've seen that a lot of times and that's when people go out of

00:50:49business so we do need to sort of look at actually doing local stuff because it is the globalist

00:50:55multinational things that are coming taking over from our small firms and I really want to work

00:50:59with small and medium businesses to ensure that they are actually you know they're actually going

00:51:04to be viable and be on our high streets because that is one of the reasons why our high streets

00:51:08are dying the bigger corporations are outside of our high streets mainly and we need to get people

00:51:13back in and we need to actually have rents that are affordable we need to work in partnership

00:51:17with everybody. Okay thank you okay um our third question comes from Claire Ald Mrs Ald

00:51:26your question? Thank you um I'm a retired nurse I've worked in every single hospital in your area

00:51:32either as a nurse or as an advisor to urgent care so I've used the transport system

00:51:39I've travelled in the rural area to come in here and we've talked about

00:51:43quite a lot of urban issues but I think we need to understand that rural poverty

00:51:49is compounded is compounding the cost of living crisis and I'd like to ask how do you think you

00:51:58could use your power in this role to improve the challenges in the rural parts of your area as well?

00:52:05Okay the first question that will first go to um should all help the news one minute I think for

00:52:10me the the green efficient transport connected system does not rule out rural areas it's about

00:52:17connecting people to each other there are an amazing also a network of farmers and within the

00:52:24rural economy in the region that are not selling their produce in in the seven big towns and other

00:52:32areas because of poor transport and also poor connectivity so to me it's about doing a map of

00:52:40the region and looking at first at the disconnected areas to put the um to put the funding there

00:52:46so that we are truly we're talking about leveling up all the time but truly leveling up to connect

00:52:53people to each other. Thank you very much and I've got the same question to Sonny Berg.

00:53:00I didn't quite get the question from all the way back there but I'm guessing it's

00:53:03on rural crime and rural regeneration. It's on rural poverty yeah and that's compounding

00:53:10cost of living crisis and what you'll do to help rural properties it's not just urban areas.

00:53:15So do you farm? Rural areas are no no do you farm? I know okay so okay yeah so so one of my

00:53:25friends Phil Bennion he's a councillor up in Litchfield he's a liberal democratic councillor

00:53:28he's also a farmer and he was an MEP and his wife is a nurse as well and one of the biggest problems

00:53:36when I'm around there which I've seen is he live in a rural area you're a nurse firstly is is

00:53:41essentially getting access to work getting transportation because the roads are absolutely

00:53:45horrendous the amount I mean you think potholes around cities are a problem there are literally

00:53:51streams washing away roads as you're driving through them and the second and the second thing

00:53:55is I think this there's a lot of rural crime which results in poverty so what I mean by that isn't

00:54:00just someone's tractor parts being nicked or certain parts of tractors being nicked because

00:54:04they're quite expensive but the fact that the police don't get a chance to respond fast enough

00:54:09because of the amount of space they have to cover so I'm all for neighbourhood policing

00:54:14so as for rural poverty I totally get that but that's not fair

00:54:28okay mrs williams so there are a lot of areas also that are outside towns like you say we need

00:54:35to look at the whole whole of the area the west midlands we can't leave any area out sometimes

00:54:40it feels like you know when you're reading things everything might be focused on Birmingham or

00:54:45it's it's you know one of the authorities it's not it's not quite like that but you feel that

00:54:49sometimes so we need to look at need to look at obviously you know the roads are a big issue I

00:54:54visited some rural places they are in big need of attention we need to get the roads correct

00:54:59we need to also look at you know running you know some bus services can come out they might not come

00:55:04out we can know when they're going to come even if they only come you know at certain times where

00:55:08you can actually get to work and get back you need to work with those local communities to see what

00:55:12the people want I'm all about finding out what each area needs and then we can tailor that to

00:55:17what that area needs it shouldn't just be a one size fits all it has to be looking at the individual

00:55:23areas thank you much and Richard Parker yes so quite simply I want to be a mayor for the whole

00:55:31west midlands but I'll be very very clear from the outset my priorities those parts of the region

00:55:36that have been overlooked and left behind for too long it does include rural areas it includes a

00:55:41large part of the black country and large part of the cities many areas are suffering from a

00:55:48cost of living crisis caused by a mini budget by a reckless thoughtless thankless Prime Minister

00:55:55Liz Truss yep a Conservative politician that has done an enormous amount of damage to this region

00:56:00and not understanding it my three approaches are public transport and buses I've said a bit about

00:56:05those already so I won't say too much about that but we can we can design the people in this region

00:56:11can work with me design a bus network that works for everyone and we need to connect people in

00:56:16those more rural places to the jobs and the labour markets that exist because there are too many

00:56:21barriers for too many people getting to work we need to invest in skills a way we're not doing

00:56:26today we're short in this region believe it or not 800 welders jobs that should be accessible

00:56:31to any young person in this region the fact that we can't fill those roles currently is a shocking

00:56:35indictment of the current skill system and thirdly we need to build more housing social housing and

00:56:41I've got a program of that Andy can talk about what he's done but eight years in office eight

00:56:45years in office Andy Street has built 46 units of social housing yep that's not an indictment

00:56:51policy failure so mr parker will stop there please

00:56:55and finally Andy Street yeah with pleasure so first thing I can do to contribute to uh how

00:57:01cost of living crisis will make sure I didn't charge people any tax and advantage to everyone

00:57:04that's the decision we took zero mayoral tax mayoral tax in London over the same period of

00:57:09two thousand four hundred and twenty pounds so it does make a difference next thing is as

00:57:13others have said to be fair transport but our record speaks for itself we have protected 90

00:57:17of the bus services in this region much better than any region and that includes

00:57:21all of the rural services and we literally subsidize them directly about

00:57:31in rural areas and in Solihull and commentary we've trialed in the most rural area in Solihull

00:57:36what we call a demand responsive thing which basically is uber for buses going very well I

00:57:41want to bring that across the whole region most important thing probably for rural areas though

00:57:46is to make sure they are not overpressed in terms of their services so the simple thing there is

00:57:51about preventing development in rural area protecting all of the greenbelt as I've said

00:57:55across all of the black country not a single blade of greenbelt grass has been lost because

00:58:00of what we're doing lastly small businesses getting subsidies particularly under energy

00:58:04efficiency that we have directly directly contributed to a lot of those on they call

00:58:09the edge of the city or indeed into the rural areas so practical things already done thank you

00:58:15much okay thank you very much for all of those responses uh anybody want to raise any points on

00:58:21this yes madam um just to go back to your point about you know how you've kept 90% of the bus

00:58:27services yes um i'm from wensfield and as you know that's not far from woollen hall where the new

00:58:33train station is going to be built at the moment it would take me over an hour to get to woollen

00:58:38hall but i'd have to come through wolverhampton to actually get to the train station so at that

00:58:42point i might as well stay and get the wolverhampton train um but would you ever consider

00:58:47actually uh bringing back some of those bus services so back in the day i think it was 528

00:58:55something like that we lost that bus service apparently due to a lack of use um but if i

00:59:00would have had that bus service that would be actually when i got to train station and so i'm

00:59:04just kind of wondering the kind of interest in actually bringing back some of those older

00:59:08especially in the context of the train station yeah so um we've protected 90% after covid that

00:59:14was better than any other region in the country you can go and examine that very clearly uh and

00:59:18we've kept our fares lowest and we have got over 100% of ridership no other city region has

00:59:23achieved that so this is a good story the answer question is i'm not going to give a firm commitment

00:59:27on any 528 but the idea is once the railway station opens we will remap the bus services

00:59:33to serve that station the whole idea is that the bus that train and indeed even the cycle

00:59:39for the last bit of the journey david that will all come together so that gives us that opportunity

00:59:43to do that i think my point was just that transportation is a public service just as

00:59:49the health service the education service is a public service and it needs to be under public

00:59:54control it's about making sure that there aren't it's not driven by profit or efficiency but by

01:00:01need and the need of the people living in rural areas whether or not there's one person wants a

01:00:07bus that day that bus should be able to turn up does that make sense glad williams so as i've

01:00:13already said i'd like to look at the whole the way the buses are actually run and use the smaller

01:00:17style buses as well so if a route wasn't viable at one point if we're actually running a smaller

01:00:22community pipe bus it's probably you know look at it see see about it and it could possibly be

01:00:26viable to actually do something with and then you know get communities back connected together

01:00:31because it is very important to have all bus routes i lost the bus route outside my house

01:00:35under the national express as well so i do fully understand so the

01:00:41so-called bus routes would have to be put in by franchisees and operators if i became mayor that

01:00:45would include routes like which will connect one part of the city to another or deprived areas of

01:00:50the city to another part of the area or also rural communities and i just want to just touch on this

01:00:56um transportation is massive this is one of the reasons liberal democrats have won in somerset

01:01:02and broom tibetan and hollerton um um north shropshire all rural areas they've now got liberal

01:01:08democratic mps people are voting liberal democrat in swedes and the reason for that even strafford

01:01:14on pay even we've now got a liberal democratic council so the reason for that is this we're

01:01:18sensible we know how things work because we are made up of people just like you we're not funded

01:01:23by trade unions or multi-millionaires or gazillionaires i don't know you know we don't

01:01:29get that sort of funding we're funded by people like you so we understand people like you need

01:01:34richard parker do you want to just to say that uh currently it's national express decide whether

01:01:38or not your your buses run not the mail the ca that's got to change uh under a franchising system

01:01:45we will remap the network so it works for everyone stopping the disadvantage and the

01:01:50disparity and opportunity that i've talked about before uh and currently 40 percent of the fares

01:01:57or 40 percent the revenues that go to actually express come from people paying fares but we

01:02:01currently have little or no say on what those routes are that needs to change we'll do what

01:02:05we've done in manchester increasing reliability and to be clear protecting bus routes isn't

01:02:11protecting the timetable the mayor was just shaking his head i'm sorry richard that isn't

01:02:17let's just explain how the current system please do i will and it's called an enhanced partnership

01:02:22the partnership between the transport authority and the operator so uh operators do bid for routes

01:02:29they wish to run themselves commercially that happens route like 529 would be a very good

01:02:34example of that but then the combined authority has an obligation to provide routes that are

01:02:40required to fill in the network at social cost we pay for those directly that is where the levy

01:02:46that was raised by uh from councils goes so we make sure there is a full network across the whole

01:02:52piece that for example is what's contributed this demand responsive piece is what contributes to

01:02:56evening services it's what enables me to say we will carry out night buses filling up so it is

01:03:01just not true to say that this is some sort of wild west of the commercial network we choose

01:03:07what we are putting on as socially required routes well that's good to know because when

01:03:11i listen to people and the bus system doesn't work for them we now know it's not national express

01:03:16it's responsible for that failure okay just briefly anybody else would like any

01:03:21put on the question was about rural poverty so does anybody else want to um

01:03:25make any points on this or we'll yep two madams if you want to no no okay we'll move on then

01:03:31question um four comes from um we've got some young people here from st thomas malls school

01:03:38uh we got a question here to misha sawyer

01:03:55okay let's look at first one minute to sunny

01:03:59so knife crime

01:04:01can you don't time me just yet

01:04:07right so knife crime and essentially just general crime around schools and such

01:04:13yeah so so basically look i've got friends in the party mothers who have children who have

01:04:22other trainers nicked in outside schools um who have been subject of knife crimes um also i've

01:04:29got really serious concerns about racing which which which can kill children or or young people

01:04:36crossing the road at times crime is a really serious issue now recently there was some

01:04:41litigation which means that the police and crime commissioner role can't be merged in with the

01:04:47mayoral role so andy tried to get the police and crime commissioner role that's right isn't it and

01:04:52yes and the court said no for various different reasons which we can't go into what we can go

01:04:56into but it just takes well i don't have a minute for it but the long and short is this in order to

01:05:01work with the police in order to work with central government in order to work with local authorities

01:05:05you need a liberal mayor that understands how crime works and the issues around crime and reducing it

01:05:12and poverty is part and parcel of that getting people into jobs getting high streets running

01:05:16getting those living cities going getting heritage protected is all part and parcel it's all

01:05:21interconnected and if that happens crime will reduce itself and i will work with the police

01:05:27of crime commissioner mr bell that is and let's speak elatedly to get primed up

01:05:35yes so it's really concerning to hear about the amount of violent crime that we now have and

01:05:39like when i was at school i'm not going to say how long ago that was but things like that were

01:05:43not you know very uncommon to hear of you know you know back when i was then so again there are

01:05:49two as we just heard from sunny there are two distinctive roles here the mayor and the police

01:05:54crime commissioner so it would be the police and crime commissioners role to actually look at what's

01:05:59happening with policing but within the structure of the west midlands combined authority there is

01:06:04influence that the mayor can actually you know have on the police and crime commissioner because

01:06:07that the committee structure so i've worked with the police and crime commission to address these

01:06:11issues it's so important that we actually get back our streets and take back control of them we need

01:06:16to also have a zero tolerance approach to crime and we're not actually seeing that at the moment

01:06:21because unfortunately our police force is so overstretched because i understand that the west

01:06:25midlands police force is the second worst funded police force in the country and again that's

01:06:31obviously down to the way that some funding is dealt with from various places like national

01:06:35government we need to lobby for more funds and that's something that the police and crime

01:06:39commissioner would need to do thank you very much and the same question to the japan please

01:06:45really really important question i spent a lot of my time talking to young people in schools

01:06:52and community groups and somewhere in the city social entrepreneurs who work with young people

01:06:57to address issues of crime antisocial behavior there are issues around policing and cuts to

01:07:04policing and police but there is a bigger issue about how we support young people through mentoring

01:07:10guidance and other support we've lost youth workers across the region played a very important

01:07:16role in in helping people understand the implications of crime and behavior like this

01:07:23and also a lot of community support so what i'd like to do is and my team are currently going

01:07:29through the combined authority budgets i plan and i want to raise and create a fund that we can

01:07:36reinvest in our community groups and support groups and our youth networks so we can get

01:07:40funds into those the voluntary sector that particularly supports young people

01:07:44in some of the communities that feel more threatened by by life crime thank you very much

01:07:51um and to say a question to andy street yeah with pleasure sir bishop thank you very important

01:07:55question so uh two parts the answer everything that's been said about support for young people

01:08:01education in schools charities that deal with victims of violent knife crime to actually bring

01:08:07them face to face in schools there's a key part there but there's another part that i want to

01:08:10concentrate on in a very limited time that's about community policing you get intelligence about where

01:08:15this is happening if your police officers stuck into the local community the heart of that is

01:08:20police stations the labour candidate said in his literature that he would defend the police station

01:08:27labour police and crime commissioner candidate says he is closing 30 police stations across the

01:08:32west midlands lots of them in the black country wedgesfield aldridge this goes on so i think the

01:08:38one thing we would do immediately is halt those police station closures and get our resources

01:08:45back into front line policing getting that intelligence learning about where risk occurs

01:08:50and tackle it in that way thank you very much and um the same question to siobhan harper news

01:08:58thank you misha um yes the levels of crime tend to rise with levels of poverty

01:09:05sadly the two are interconnected um indisputably interconnected um so to address poverty we're

01:09:13talking about creating jobs creating opportunities putting money back into people's pockets by

01:09:18investing in our public services in terms of the other side of it where people are involved in

01:09:25crime and antisocial behavior i totally agree having worked on a crime and community safety

01:09:31project for a number of years we've had to work hand in hand with local police with neighborhood

01:09:36watches schemes and also with the fire service and community groups so creating a bunch of

01:09:44diversionary activities for young people was a core way to reduce crime in that neighborhood

01:09:51getting kids involved in and sadly what happens during times of great poverty is we start cutting

01:09:57youth services where are kids going what are kids got to do there's no hope that we're not got a job

01:10:02not college courses we we get involved in antisocial behavior so it's it's it's doing

01:10:09not one thing but several things thank you very much thanks sir for all those responses

01:10:14and any sort of comments or questions on this from the audience um yes sir in the middle sir

01:10:20i served for 30 years in the police and all i say is take the local bodies off the beat

01:10:26they lose the contact and crime goes up it's imperative that local police officers are

01:10:33to do the job get on with the job make the contacts know who lives on their patch

01:10:40and 750 jobs 750 police officers have been cut i'm gonna i'm gonna very quickly deal with this

01:10:47point two two two points on that firstly the west midlands police if i understand this rightly

01:10:52are currently in special special measures because of chronic underfunding from a conservative

01:10:58government right from a conservative government they are in they are in special measures right

01:11:03birmingham city council no point saying yes birmingham city council are bankrupt so a lot

01:11:07of youth services are being cut in and around birmingham and other councils thankfully they're

01:11:11now all budgeted out and they should be okay but but more of a more of a more of a more of a more

01:11:17of a leash needs to be put on that right so both labour and conservatives have failed you totally

01:11:22get it izzy knowles one of our liberal democratic councillors over in mosley has been a police

01:11:27officer for years she's now retired she's now a lib dem we are absolutely keen to cut crime down

01:11:32we understand the problem when you don't have neighborhood policing absolutely to the core

01:11:37because if you have spent because the problem with neighborhood policing is this they take the

01:11:41neighborhood policing they take the they take the critical police officer the sergeant the bobby who

01:11:45knows the people put him on something like warrants duty serving warrants and then he's not there to

01:11:49serve the community anymore and only the liberal democrats are actually have a strategic approach

01:11:55to this we will create a special warrants team special teams to do those jobs so neighborhood

01:12:00policing neighborhood policing sergeants can stay in their communities and get to know their

01:12:04communities they will know who p who carries the knives they will have the intelligence they will

01:12:08have their ear to the ground and they will make sure things work which you're going to respond

01:12:13to that i don't know if i need to respond i'm just going to amplify the point really because

01:12:16what said i wholly believe in that about neighborhood policing it's where the intel

01:12:21starts but you have to have a base you have to have a place where neighborhood police officers

01:12:26connect with the community and that's why this issue of the police station is so important

01:12:31and richard it is true it is true that you are now supporting the labour police and crime

01:12:37candidate who has a proposal to close 30 police stations and your literature your own literature

01:12:45said you would halt the police station closures you are now saying you're going ahead with them

01:12:50which is it closure or saving them i will i'm working really closely with simon foster who's

01:12:55a fantastic labour candidate standing as pcc simon quite rightly because of cuts to services

01:13:02uh and he wants to deploy police uh officers locally is looking at the asset base of the

01:13:08police force and the possibility of using other public service hubs and assets to house

01:13:14um and locate police officers so it's not simply about closing police stations it's the best way

01:13:20in which to deploy police officers on the ground of our community that won't always need to be

01:13:25from a police station but it could be from another public service hub that they host with other

01:13:30public service uh other civil servants other public service workers so let's be really clear

01:13:36this isn't about closing police stations this is about the best way in which to locate and house

01:13:42police officers on the ground of our community deliver a better value for money because we've

01:13:47got no choice given the cuts the savage cuts the tories have made to the police budgets over the

01:13:52last 15 years so elaine williams first you were trying to speak first okay so first of all i'd

01:13:56like to thank you for your public service of 30 years to this country because i know from speaking

01:14:02to police officers how hard it is to do their job particularly more so now because of the under

01:14:07funding the cutbacks that we have had the conservative government cut back on lots of

01:14:11police and then they now say they're going to invest in the police but haven't even recovered

01:14:15the numbers that have gone so when we're looking at local areas we have to work with what we've got

01:14:21at the moment but we want to get them back out on the beat so one of the things that reform uk would

01:14:26do it would have to be a national level after a general election is we are committed to increasing

01:14:31the police force over a five-year term by 40 000 to bring it up to at least the levels per head

01:14:37that they have in france we are so low in this country this is why we're not actually getting

01:14:42the crime tackled because the police have actually bound up in red tape in the in the

01:14:45police stations as well we need to get rid of that we need to get them back out on the beat

01:14:49do the community policing as well so we can actually look at the overall crime rates and

01:14:53get them down and we do believe in a zero tolerance approach to crime so anything that's

01:14:58actually a criminal including shoplifting which is not dealt with at the moment needs to be dealt

01:15:03i think you would meet mr mayor was in getting what you'd like to unless you've all wanted to

01:15:08speak yes let's all speak personally i think i said um what i what i um i didn't have a rebuttal

01:15:16but thank you for your service and i agree um where there are police on the on the ground

01:15:22doing the neighborhood bobby thing um it's wonderful and there's a lot of officers now

01:15:26who have never walked feet never walked a beat they know the inside of a station there

01:15:32that know the inside of a car i think you wanted to just i was just going to say very simply

01:15:37richard you can say all you want about different models of delivery but the labour party has held

01:15:42the post of police and crime commissioner for 12 years in the west midlands and now in special

01:15:47measures in the force we have the highest knife crime in the country there hasn't been a single

01:15:52example of exactly what you talked about about the state strategy there is a proposal to close

01:15:5830 police stations you have not said you will reverse that how clearer can i be about simon's

01:16:04strategy about the best way to locate and house police officers on the grind dog community

01:16:10if we've got to make cuts and protect further cuts police officers we need to find a far more

01:16:14efficient way of locating them and the best way of doing that is another public service hubs

01:16:18where they're sharing buildings now under the tories we've had almost 150 million pounds

01:16:23cuts to police budgets we've got 750 fewer officers than it was in 2010 and in this country

01:16:3090 of crimes are unsolved very handy for a tory man a tory government then to blame people running

01:16:38this region for the problems we've got at a time when people are getting poorer not richer they're

01:16:43suffering most they're suffering the cost of living crisis and we've had the acute cuts to public

01:16:47services and the police officers and of course it's not just police we've seen it in the health

01:16:51service we've seen it in schools we've seen it in housing local government yep there is a system

01:16:56systemic underfunding of our public services everyone in this room knows it there's no one

01:17:01in this room that feels richer than they were 10 years ago there's no one in this room believes

01:17:05we've got better services than we were 15 years ago and no one in this room paying a lower mortgage

01:17:10a lower rent than they were 15 years ago that's what the tories have done to this region they've

01:17:14taken us backwards not forwards it's time for change just finally on the subject yes um the

01:17:19final point uh yes sir mr so back on to the specific question in youth knife crime and fear

01:17:28when the youth has nowhere to go nothing to do the biggest evil is that a border

01:17:34it will take hold that's right when we have towns like walsall that have now prohibited

01:17:39late night venues doing under 16 discos and you wonder why gang crime increases

01:17:46we need the out-of-home leisure activity to increase for every age group we need a new model

01:17:53of a youth centre that suits today's youth not ours theirs that will bring social cohesion

01:18:02that will adjourn culture and that will end the crime

01:18:07please you won't do it alone

01:18:16moving on to our fifth question if you go to this david viner um

01:18:22you'd love to speak to that thank you thank you mark thank you very much indeed to the

01:18:27express and staff so incredibly important to have local newspapers

01:18:31my name is david viner i've campaigned for an indoor velodrome for the west midlands i've got

01:18:36this uh delayed because i was a volunteer at the games commonwealth games were the best thing that

01:18:41happened to this place the westerners for many many years so i've never asked this question

01:18:48put it into context um i always knew it was incredibly important because this will be a

01:18:54regional facility if it is built we must have we must have the backing of the western and

01:19:01combined authority and i'm very pleased to say that thank you very much to the mayor

01:19:09okay funding from sporting was put forward to do a business case a very complicated business case

01:19:18and actually this links up to knife crime it links up to lots of things we've spoken about

01:19:23we talked about activity bringing people together anyway i'm asking this question on behalf of

01:19:30somebody i know called k jones k it was an international hockey player

01:19:37she is the daughter of the late tommy godwin who wrote in the 1948

01:19:53i was very disappointed the highly successful commonwealth games in 2022

01:19:57did not include track cycling due to lack of a velodrome in the western

01:20:02province the west the mess the midlands area has a rich history of success and participation

01:20:09in track cycling and a sporting knife under the positive business case such a venue which

01:20:16will include multi-sports facilities could you ask mayoral candidates if they will support such

01:20:24provision which will be available for a wide range of uses in the area very thanks

01:20:33i'm going to put this one first to elaine williams so thank you for the question and it is very

01:20:39important that we have lots of activities across the west midlands for people and that would be a

01:20:44fantastic opportunity for young people to get involved we've just heard obviously the question

01:20:49about knife crime and all the things like that but young people need something to do we need more

01:20:55areas where we can actually focus on that and actually send them to places where they might

01:20:59be interested in doing things which we haven't got at the moment so building a sports facility

01:21:04and actually getting them into that would be would be great obviously we need to look at the

01:21:08business case we need to look at the funding without actually seeing that and what funding

01:21:13is available i can't actually give an actual pledge but certainly if elected as mayor we

01:21:17would look into that if the funding is there and it's a good business proposition then yes

01:21:23thank you very much and i'll put that next to richard parker just to say i'll take a similar

01:21:31line to elaine on this i haven't seen the business case i'm very happy to look at it and what

01:21:37resources we'll look at what funding sport england others can provide but there is something we need

01:21:44to be just clear about and that's not just the capital cost of creating such a facility which

01:21:49is much needed it's about ensuring we've got sustainable run of revenues going forward so

01:21:56that we can we can support it and managing it going forward there has been a history i think

01:22:02not just across this region of others of lots of money being invested whether it's lottery fund

01:22:07money or other grants into assets and then there hasn't been the ongoing revenue stream so

01:22:13i'm i love certainly back it my biggest concern would be ongoing revenue streams i think those

01:22:19would need to come through national sports bodies if we're going to make this work

01:22:23i will campaign for that and work as hard as i can for secure it but i do want to make sure the

01:22:28burden of such a facility is shared the financial burden not just across the west midlands but

01:22:35from the government too thank you very much and i've got the same question to andy street

01:22:41yeah so the answer is yes because obviously we've worked on the feasibility together with

01:22:45sporting indeed funded but there is an important point which tells you about how i go about things

01:22:49in answering this question because david and the lady whose name you call that in the question

01:22:54were very disappointed in me when we did not have a velodrome for the track cycling in the west

01:23:00midlands for the commonwealth games but i argued at the time we couldn't justify it and i think

01:23:05that was proven right actually another big expensive project to that probably would have

01:23:09been a white elephant in the long term had we built something for the commonwealth games and

01:23:13we said no so we thought differently we've got on top of the detail of how this can be viable

01:23:18with lots of sports coming together and we've now got something we can get behind so there's

01:23:22an underlying point about actually being honest and actually getting on top of the numbers and

01:23:27getting something that's viable and that is what we'll do just one last thought on this which shows

01:23:31my commitment to this generally commonwealth games underspent we've got the cash held here

01:23:35the underspend and about 12 million pounds is now being used of that on community facilities

01:23:41uh to support exactly as we've been talking about in the previous question that sort of

01:23:45social infrastructure and communities thanks thank you and i think yes yes in principle

01:23:52especially if there's a business case for the ongoing um uh sustainability of the project

01:23:59um but it it speaks to the other issue of more and more diversionary issue it um opportunities

01:24:05for young people and older people um because you never know it might take up um cycling late in

01:24:12life um but it's about it's about one incorrect in creating jobs to providing opportunities for

01:24:19people to get together and socialize but also providing opportunities for us to have better

01:24:26healthier lives so yes yes yes in that thank you very much and finally to sunny

01:24:35it's the same response that most people here have given you which is that subject to the

01:24:40business plan the funding and everything being in place of course it's viable if the funding

01:24:44is there it's viable but this is where i say that we have to work a little bit nationally

01:24:48and across the board to get funding in from other businesses as well and equity companies

01:24:52and whatever is needed in order to get something like this off the ground the less the less burden

01:24:58there is on the public purse the better moving forward there has to be a legacy to it it has to

01:25:02be integrated with other sports i would have thought that something has to be that thing

01:25:06has to be used once the actual tournaments are over so in part and parcel of that i will be

01:25:11looking at working with other venues other other associations now i'm not going to mention who they

01:25:17are otherwise they may get picked up later on um and i've already been talking to a number of

01:25:21friends of mine and and other people that i've asked my my team to talk to to see what funding

01:25:26is available from a private sector in projects like this and what could and could not be done

01:25:31but yeah absolutely if it can be done it should be done there's no reason for it not to be done

01:25:36thank you very much okay anybody want to suggest any points on this any questions about this

01:25:43no okay i think i wanted a very quick point when i worked on crime and community safety again with

01:25:49police with um fire with local communities because young people often the the young people

01:25:56that we were targeting were often latchkey kids they were often on the streets at nights

01:26:02so we trialed projects like midnight football and late night cricket etc so to work we need to see

01:26:11when the people who need these these projects most um and like the gentleman there with the night

01:26:17club and the social clubs i've seen those clubs in dig but absolutely people queuing for miles

01:26:23around the corner just to go and dance and hang out with their friends and i'll drop of alcohol

01:26:28in place so yes we've got to look at definitely look at it but also look at how we can attract

01:26:34certain audiences at different times quickly and i'll allow each of us to have quickly respond as

01:26:39well if you want to help mr harpy i just um i just say on that point i think i think it's really

01:26:44not having seen the business case but i think there is a responsibility on you know the cycling

01:26:49groups and others that are advocating this to also start to think about how they can open up

01:26:54the accessibility of such a facility to broader use and what is might be limiting and constraining

01:27:00a larger group of young people particularly participating in cycling as a as a sport maybe

01:27:06you don't have any further thoughts on that yourself yes you can so i've campaigned for

01:27:12seven years yeah absolutely i want this facility to be inclusive to everybody

01:27:21the matter of white income yes or social area yeah the time left so if you can each uh we're

01:27:29gonna need two minutes actually each you give your final your final thought of two minutes as

01:27:34to what what put your case and we'll start in the reverse order that we began from so the first

01:27:39speaker will be sonny bird the liberal democrats have been winning by elections across the country

01:27:49left right and center council by elections they've taken over a lot of council

01:27:54and of course when i say a lot i also mean toughest uh some of them through

01:27:59antipaton ponton and of course more shropshire just just to name three so moving forward the

01:28:05choice is really simple in my view if if you want a man that can work cross party that can bring more

01:28:12investment to the region that won't find those barriers or find less resistance the liberal

01:28:17democrats are best placed to make that happen for you that's it's as simple as that you're going to

01:28:23have a choice on the second of may if you haven't already voted it's to get it is to vote for the

01:28:28people sitting on this panel plus one independent you could not hear well the reality is the liberal

01:28:35democrats are about i think 50 odd members of parliament at the moment number of members of

01:28:40the house of lords a lot of councils under their control and we are the party that does make things

01:28:45happen we move things forward we i am all about personally i'm all about getting the job done

01:28:51i'm about essentially honesty integrity and just making things work i i where the funding is

01:28:58available i will make things happen i want transport to happen i want policing to really

01:29:02work i want road safety is a big issue it really hasn't hasn't been touched on today along with my

01:29:08friend but road safety is another big issue there are so many deaths on the road there are so many

01:29:12major car accidents around across the west midlands that has to stop i'm all about protecting life

01:29:18protecting liberty and of course protecting the environment i have a massive green agenda

01:29:23i'm massive on social housing i really want to see a lot more social as the liberal democrats

01:29:28have a nationally costed plan to have 150 000 social houses and i want to build i want to start

01:29:35that in the west midlands i'll just finish off by saying this we also have something called the

01:29:38skills wallet which gives everyone up until the age of 55 a spend of 10 000 pounds to allow them

01:29:45to develop and add to the economy as they get older so they're part and parcel of what is the

01:29:50beating heart of britain that i've pulled many times the west midlands thank you thank you very

01:29:55much mr burke and this the next speaker will be siobhan harper news um every party um you have

01:30:04on offer this election far one has a green agenda we have people and planet as priorities not

01:30:14somewhere on page 18 or 19 of our agenda as a top priority of our agenda and by investing in

01:30:22the people we are investing in the infrastructure of this region making sure we have a clean green

01:30:30transport connected system that connects you to each other to connect people to jobs connects

01:30:37to opportunities we also want to invest a massive investment in our housing stock retrofitting our

01:30:46homes so that they are warmer they are safer they are cleaner and they are greener so this will have

01:30:52an impact on jobs it will have an impact on the local economy it will have an impact on people

01:30:59living in those homes as their their bills energy bills go from here to here um so in terms of we

01:31:09don't we don't somewhere in our priorities have people and planet they are the core they are

01:31:16our priorities that's what the green party prioritizes people and planet thank you

01:31:23thank you very much for that um and a final closing statement from andy stripped yes thank

01:31:30you very much mark and once again thank you to uh the university and the paper for hosting and

01:31:35thank you for all of you for participating in the rawest form of democracy i really only want to

01:31:39make one point at the end of this because i think it's the point that underpins all of this hostings

01:31:46by their very nature lots of people make lots of commitments and we've all done that and we've all

01:31:51made lots of commitments and we've all done that lots of promises but i will tell you or ask you to reflect

01:31:56that every single thing has to be underpinned by sound financial management and i absolutely

01:32:04stand by my record on that seven years ago we had nothing we've now got an annual budget of 1.2

01:32:11billion pounds and as i said we've got incomes whether they've come from government or whether

01:32:16they've come from the private sector which are record numbers and therefore we have absolutely

01:32:22the ability to invest what i have said we will do we have not made a single promise that is unfunded

01:32:31in my manifesto i can see where every single line is going to be funded from because of the

01:32:38negotiations that largely i have done with either the private sector or indeed government to bring

01:32:44that cash in two other things you have my word that the investment will continue to be spread

01:32:51between the black country and other areas people said seven years ago oh this will be a birmingham

01:32:56takeover it's not been you look for head of population the investment the black country

01:33:01has done relatively well under my leadership and the last thing i would say to you is it's all been

01:33:07done without charging you a single penny in mayoral tax now we've had this debate in the black country

01:33:14so one of the elephants in the room the financial situation in birmingham has not come up and i would

01:33:19just ask you to consider can you afford to move away from that financial rigor that has characterized

01:33:27my approach to this and put the west midlands into the hands of the same party as has actually

01:33:34led birmingham to the financial situation that they are now in if you do not want to do that

01:33:40you have only one person to vote for in this mayoral election thank you thank you

01:33:46thank you very much and um a clouding statement now from richard park please okay thank you very

01:33:52much everyone for attending today look after 14 years of a tory government and seven years

01:33:59of a tory mayor this region is the worst position that's ever been we've got the poorest performing

01:34:05regional economy in the country indeed in a recent report by my old employees pwc and i think

01:34:10tag demos they looked at the performance of 16 devolved regions and this region was sitting 15th

01:34:17in the late october 16 on good growth the only region performing worse was the tease valley

01:34:23led by another tory mayor ben houching we've got to look forward not backwards and outwards not

01:34:29inwards and we need a fresh start and a new change and a new focus i've committed to putting

01:34:36a mayoral office in the black country so this part of the region gets the focus it deserves

01:34:41and it's been overlooked and left behind for too long with some of the poorest economic performance

01:34:46and social statistics anywhere in in the country i've got a very clear agenda for change going to

01:34:53create 150 000 new jobs and apprenticeships giving people the possibility and access to

01:34:59better jobs and better paid jobs that can transform their lives too many people in this part of the

01:35:04region are in low paid work and suffer on the vault all the vulnerabilities and uh that go

01:35:09with that and all the anxieties that go with that and it's wrong and they come from the poorest parts

01:35:14of the region i'll commit to delivering 2 000 units of social housing a year the current mayor

01:35:19after eight years has only delivered 64 that's a shocking indictment of tory policy on social

01:35:24housing and it really is something that is damaging the lives of the poorest people in

01:35:28this region we'll bring the buses back into public control to reduce fares increase reliability

01:35:33and improve the cost of living and the impact of the cost of living on everyone here i'll also do

01:35:38things differently we're going to work very differently with the leaders we're going to host

01:35:43mayoral board meetings around the region to make the biggest difference

01:35:47this region deserves better it deserves a fresh start only labour can deliver it a labour man

01:35:53working with the labour government can give people in this region for the first time for 15 years

01:35:58the hope they've not seen hope their lives can be better hope that their families have

01:36:02a better future here and hope that places where they live have a better future too

01:36:06thank you mr parker so finally um a closing statement from um elaine williamson from uk

01:36:15okay so in closing i'm actually going to talk to you a bit about housing because we didn't

01:36:18actually have any questions about housing plans so um across the region we have a lack of social

01:36:23housing and urgent action is required to build as many homes as possible as quickly as possible

01:36:29bearing in mind that we've heard that very little social housing has been addressed in the last

01:36:33seven years the booklet devolution a mayor for the west midlands says that the mayor helps shapes

01:36:38how land is used to meet the area housing amongst other things whilst we've heard about various

01:36:44numbers that um both andy street and richard parker might like to build for housing we actually

01:36:49have to take into account a number of other factors such as the cost and sites so i'm actually

01:36:54not committing to numbers i'm committing to build as many as quickly as possible because you've got

01:36:59to take into account all the other factors as well i will work with housing associations

01:37:03to ensure more social housing is built that is cost effective in the building progress

01:37:08so that we can build as many homes as possible as quickly as possible using new construction

01:37:13technology new homes must also be energy efficient built to a high standard so that we have very

01:37:18little maintenance and repairs that are needed to start with because a lot of social housing

01:37:23at the moment when you look at it is in a poor state and that also needs addressing as well

01:37:28and so we need to have properly ventilated homes too now i'm just going to address what sonny

01:37:32burke said about his party having seats and being you know being the main challenger if you look at

01:37:37the opinion polls reform uk is now third in the opinion polls and we are the main challenger to

01:37:43vote the conservatives and labor i'm out on the streets and many many people have had enough

01:37:48and they haven't voted in the past for a long time but they are now going to be voting reforms

01:37:52it's going to be a very interesting election so what i will say is i'm standing because many

01:37:57people have had enough like me so vote for me on the 2nd of may vote for change and for a new

01:38:03approach thank you well thank you very much um for that and thank you to all the candidates for

01:38:11coming thanks for a very good um have i missed you out no no i'm sorry thank you to all the

01:38:19candidates for coming and it's been a thank you for giving it a very good um clean debate it's

01:38:23been really interesting and thought-provoking and thank you all for coming as well um thanks for

01:38:29being respectful and courteous and thank you to the candidates for sticking to the times as well

01:38:33so we finished on time so thank you very much i hope you've all found it enjoyable and informative

01:38:38and look forward to reading to the basis into mono's express and so on

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