BARROW and Furness MP John Woodcock has obtained a pledge from the government for extra efforts to be made towards upgrading the A595 at the dangerous Dove Ford chicane near Grizebeck.

Nuclear minister Richard Harrington MP said he would become personally involved in solving issues at the bottleneck.

In parliament Mr Woodcock said: “I congratulate the hon. Member for Copeland (Trudy Harrison) on securing this debate.

"I have worked closely with her on the collaboration between military and civil nuclear, and I associate myself with all the points that she made in her excellent speech.

“We want to ensure that south and west Cumbria becomes a global hub of civil and military nuclear excellence. We have world-class skills at Sellafield and Barrow shipyard, and we will have them in time with NuGen—I will say more about that in a moment. We are determined that the area should do more to promote itself as one travel-to-work area, look outwards to the world and give a joint message about what we can do together.

“We need support from the government to do that. It is great to see the Minister here, not least because the debate gives him the opportunity to answer questions that he was unable to answer last week, when he was not in the House for my urgent question on the nuclear sector deal.

“In that urgent question, I raised our need for support from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy for our bid to better connect south and west Cumbria, not simply metaphorically but literally and physically.

“We need the support of BEIS in order to persuade the Department for Transport that the transport links in our area, notably the A595 along the Cumbria coastline, which is in an appalling state, need to be addressed.”

Mr Harrington responded: “The hon member for Barrow and Furness asked me to answer a question about the transport link points and said, quite rightly, that my department must work closely with the department for transport.

“I know that that is happening and that there is a joint committee, but as a result of his point, I will attend the next meeting of the joint committee and personally report back to the hon gentleman – either by writing to him or by arranging to meet him on that subject.”

Mr Woodcock said: “It is really good to get this promise from the nuclear minister to get personally involved in persuading the department for transport to upgrade the notorious A595 bottleneck at Grizebeck.

“Sorting out the transport links between Barrow and Whitehaven is vital to deliver mine and Copeland MP Trudy Harrison’s vision to promote our constituencies as one combined corridor of global nuclear excellence.”

In parliament Mr Woodcock sounded a note of caution regarding the lack of government intervention over the troubled Moorside project.

He said: “But the minister giving the message that the future of Moorside is in the hands of the private sector is deeply worrying.

“This is a perilous moment for the 21,000 jobs that rely NuGen deal and we must not have a hands-off approach from government. I have arranged to see Richard Harrington next week and will report further then.”