Government documents that were abruptly deleted after appearing online with announcements of new transport projects were just giving “examples” of what savings from the scrapping of HS2’s northern leg could be spent on, a minister has claimed.
The documents detailed an extra £100m of funding for a mass transit “underground” project in Bristol. Mention of plans to invest £36bn in projects around the north and Midlands, including reopening Transport North East’s Leamside line, were also removed from the government’s website.
“We gave some examples to people about the sorts of things – and we know these things are priorities locally – the sorts of things that that money could be spent on, and to bring it to life for people,” the transport secretary, Mark Harper, told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire on Sunday.
The deletions on Wednesday night included removing an entire page where the government pledged to “revolutionise mass transit in Bristol’. It appeared to have been replaced with a broader pledge to give the west of England combined authority £100m, which it could spend on various projects in the region.
Asked if Bristol was going to get a new mass transit system, Harper said: “My department published a document which set out very clearly what we are going to spend the £36bn on what we are saving from cancelling the second phase of HS2.
“The money that was promised for Bristol is for £100m extra for the elected mayor of the west of England combined authority and that is money that he will have available to spend on his projects including on a mass transit system… some of those things are already being delivered.”
The shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, described the deleted plans as “fantasy promises” by the government.
“They can’t hide from the fact that they released a document that looked like it had been scribbled in crayon by advisers that had never left London,” she said on Twitter.
Questioned on Sky News, Harper said ministers would “develop the business case” for restoring the Leamside line, despite the documents last week saying it would be reopened.
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“We’ve made a big commitment to the north-east elected mayor for a significant amount of money, £1.8bn, and it will be for them to decide how they spend that money,” he told Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips show.
