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Secretary of State for Transport, the Rt. Hon. Philip Hammond MP, meets with Chris Kelly MP & the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership at the Merry Hill's Waterfront in Brierley Hill

Monday, 4 July, 2011

The Rt. Hon. Philip Hammond MP this morning met with Chris Kelly MP and the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership in Mr Kelly’s Dudley South constituency.

The 90 minute meeting, which covered transport infrastructure and economic development for the Black Country and the wider West Midlands, took place at the proposed site of a new Enterprise Zone at the Merry Hill Waterfront in Brierley Hill.

Mr Kelly said: “Philip gave a very impressive briefing on his Department’s priorities for driving economic growth in the regions. For too long levels of growth in London and the South East have not been matched elsewhere in the country, particularly in regions like ours here in the West Midlands.”

The meeting discussed at length the Government’s proposed High Speed 2 (HS2) project which, if approved, will connect London to Birmingham and then continue in a Y shape up onto Manchester and Leeds and even further on (at conventional speeds) to Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Mr Kelly concluded: “It was a pleasure to welcome the Secretary of State to my constituency and I’m delighted that he took time out of his busy schedule to meet with Black Country business people at 08:30 in the morning having set off very early to meet with us. The debate around the table was extremely mature and constructive. I will continue to bang the drum for my constituency, the Black Country and the wider West Midlands - I won’t miss any opportunity to invite the Government’s big hitters to Dudley to get the best deal possible for our area.

"In fact Mr Hammond is making a return journey to Dudley on Friday 2 March to address local Conservatives and his cabinet colleague, the Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media, Olympics & Sport, will also be addressing local Conservatives on 3 February (full details on dudleyconservatives.com/events).

"The Chancellor, George Osborne, also came up to Dudley with me only last summer.”

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NOTES TO EDITORS

The meeting took place from 08:30 to 10:00 on 4 July 2011 at the 4 star Millennium Copthorne Hotel, Brierley Hill DY5 1UR. Amongst the guests were Stuart Towe CBE, Chairman of the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

High resolution photographs:

 

The Rt. Hon. Philip Hammond MP & Chris Kelly MP
The Rt. Hon. Philip Hammond MP & Chris Kelly MP