IMPROVEMENTS to the A590 and transport links in Furness were among the issues a Barrow community leader raised when she met top ministers at the Conservative party conference.

Hazel Edwards, the leader of the Conservative group for Barrow Borough Council, journeyed to the conference in Manchester to meet a number of influential politicians.

The councillor said she wanted to ‘promote Barrow’ at the four-day event and urged senior MPs to listen to her plans.

Cllr Edwards said she discussed possible improvements to the A590 with Northern Powerhouse minister Jake Berry and transport secretary Grant Shapps as well as championing upgrades to railways.

“It’s really important that we have good transport links, particularly for our businesses, she said.

“BAE is obviously very important and we need to make sure we have strong connections with the rest of the country.

“Hopefully our train services will be improved and then it will be a choice between driving or taking the train.”

Cllr Edwards said she also spoke to politicians about Barrow’s marina village project, Salthouse Sands, to urge the government to provide funding for the long-awaited project.

She said: “I went to the conference to fight for Barrow and promote Barrow and felt like I was listened to.”

Cllr Edwards said she had been following-up her conversations with ministers by writing to them.

The Conservatives’ parliamentary candidate for Barrow and Furness, Simon Fell, made a speech at the conference, ‘making the case to level up our infrastructure so that people can commute on smoother, safer roads and enjoy more reliable rail travel’.

Prime minister Boris Johnson used the last day of the conference to set out his vision for a post-Brexit Britain.

His speech was heavy on rhetoric but light on policy, aware that his decision to publish his proposals for a Brexit deal would overshadow the content of his address to the Tory faithful in Manchester.

Instead, his 40-minute speech focused on the kind of ‘open, outward-looking, global’ country that the UK would become after leaving the European Union, mixed with strongly-worded attacks on his political opponents ahead of a widely-expected early election.

Cllr Edwards, who voted to leave in the 2016 European referendum, welcomed Mr Johnson’s latest Brexit blueprint, saying: “I support it.

“Now it’s up to the European Union to accept it.”