Julia Buckley, MP for Shrewsbury talks to Richard Williams from the Shropshire Star about her first year in office.

Shropshire Star

Transcript

00:00Julia Buckley, MP for Shoesby. I think you're marking a year in Parliament. So really, just

00:07want to find out, to start with, how you found it, and do you think being a Schottier councillor

00:10has held you in good stead?

00:12Yeah, I mean, I've enjoyed it, but obviously it's been a steep learning curve, working

00:17out how everything works and really how to get an impact has been the thing that I've

00:22tried to focus on. But absolutely, being a councillor is that sort of training ground,

00:27and I always say that to people who are interested in getting involved in politics, that actually

00:31the rules of committee and policy change are identical, whether it's Parliament, a county

00:36council or a parish council, it's the same process. And there's a famous book on committed

00:41procedure that says that. So I always say to people, you know, start on a parish council

00:45and learn the ropes, because you've got to get on with colleagues, you've got to persuade

00:48people, you've got to get motions passed, you know, you've got to learn those various

00:52skills about diplomacy, preparation, and also being in the public eye. You know, my family

00:58and I were used now to being, you know, in the public eye, really not having any privacy

01:03or time off. That is part of the job. And so actually, it's good that that's not a surprise

01:08and that, you know, we can just crack on with trying to get the most out of Parliament for

01:13Shrewsbury.

01:14And has there anything been surprising to me? Obviously, it's a learning curve, and there's

01:18a lot of pomp and ceremony and conventions and protocols in Parliament. I mean, did you

01:22turn up in your first day a bit lost like a new girl at school? Or did you just crack

01:27on?

01:27I was so excited to be there. Can you imagine, you've been campaigning for a year, it's the

01:31third time I'd stood for Parliament, I'd finally won, and I'd arrived at Parliament to get cracking.

01:36And then I arrived there and arrived at the door, and I was really taken aback how beautiful

01:40and old and historic the building. I'd completely forgotten about all of that, that, as you say,

01:45there is this beautiful history and heritage to the building. And every day that I walk

01:49in, it takes my breath away. And every visitor to Parliament says the same thing. But with

01:54that does come a lot of sort of traditions and protocols and old fashioned ways of doing

01:58things. And, you know, previously, in my career, I worked in the European Parliament

02:03in Brussels, that was a purpose built Parliament with air conditioning, and, you know, where we

02:07would vote in daylight hours. So yeah, but some of those things don't make much sense

02:11to me in terms of I'm quite down to earth, you know, I'm, my dad was a coal miner, and

02:15I'm trade union background. So for me, I want us to make good decisions based on having

02:20slept and eaten and not being 35 degrees. So some of that doesn't make much sense to

02:24me. So sometimes it's about despite all of that, how can we make good decisions and

02:29get a good impact for Shrewsbury?

02:31And obviously, you've been talking about casework. Can you explain just how many emails are you

02:38getting, how much casework? And is there anything without talking about individuals, are there

02:42any things that have, you know, really took your breath away or have you learnt a lot?

02:45Yeah, I mean, I already had quite a lot of casework as a Shropshire counsellor. But so in

02:50the last year, I've had over 9,000 constituents contact me asking for support. And about a third

02:55of those are what I would call serious cases asking for help with housing, benefits, education,

03:02perhaps problems with the police. And so sometimes we see the same sort of problem occurring.

03:07We do have really serious problems with housing in Shrewsbury. The cost of renting and mortgages

03:13is really high compared to the rest of the region. And that puts a lot of pressure on families

03:17who are low earners or for whatever reason fall out of work. So we do a lot of support for

03:23people who need social housing or are waiting for temporary accommodation. And lots of issues

03:28around children with special education needs. And we do a lot of work with the council around

03:32that. And they're starting to change the way that they work with families and the way they

03:36provide that support. But we have huge waiting lists. I was just meeting this morning with

03:40a group of head teachers and they all raised that with me again. So it's definitely firmly

03:44on my radar.

03:49And over the last year, I mean, is there anything particular that you're a new MP, is there something

03:54you're particularly proud of and you're happy that, you know, they've accomplished something?

03:58Yeah, I mean, so really, within a couple of months, I sort of said to myself, what are the really

04:05big issues for Shrewsbury? What are the things which are really important to the residents that

04:08they keep raising every turn? And I mean, you're surrounded by my whiteboard here, Richard, with all

04:12my strategic priorities. And basically, the priorities we've chosen are water, transport,

04:17health and education. And the water issue is both about pollution and flooding. And the transport

04:23issue, which is raised by everybody, is congestion and why we don't have more buses, why we don't

04:29have more trains, and why aren't they integrated? So I've really tried to put a lot of effort

04:33and work into moving the dial on those. And around water, I managed to get elected onto the

04:39Environment Select Committee. And I pitched for an inquiry to focus on flooding and for it

04:45to use Shrewsbury as a national case study. So next month, the whole committee will travel

04:50from Westminster to Shrewsbury to meet local people, businesses, flood for it, to listen

04:56to their experience and evidence. And I've already invited some to come and give evidence

05:00in Parliament, but to listen to the people of Shrewsbury about how flooding affects us

05:04and what's wrong with the response and the funding and the prevention that current agencies

05:09are or not delivering. So I'm really proud about trying to make that connection between

05:13policymakers and actually the experience of our local people. And then just on transport,

05:19the same thing, really. I'm doing a lot of work around buses. I've got an event coming

05:22up on Saturday, a roundtable where residents can come and talk about the issues they have

05:28with buses and what improvements they want to see. And we'll be submitting that as evidence

05:33into another parliamentary inquiry. And on the trains, I've really been backing a bid for

05:39an extra train. You're nodding there, I think you've heard about this campaign, to have five

05:43direct trains a day down to London. We should hear the decision within the next week, and we've

05:48put so much work into that.

05:50As I understand it with that, it's National Mail that are listening to it, rather than

05:53the ORR, is it?

05:54So the Office for Rail and Road, the regulator, they make the decision, and their board will

05:59meet this week to reach that decision. But they take evidence from Network Rail, which

06:03is, you know, how will the network and the infrastructure cope if we had five extra trains, and evidence

06:08from the applicant and from people like myself. So I formed a coalition of 15 MPs along the route,

06:14and we all wrote in together. I raised it with the Prime Minister, I organised a meeting with

06:18Lord Hendy, the Rail Minister, I organised a meeting with the regulator, I asked the Chamber

06:23of Commerce and all our stakeholders to write in and say how much we need it. So we've done

06:27a huge campaign around the need and the demand for extra services, particularly for Shrewsbury.

06:33And actually, that train would reconnect five towns back to the capital. But you're quite

06:37right, there are question marks about whether there's enough capacity on the line, and we've

06:41really got to make the case. So we've got everything crossed for that decision. But whatever that

06:46decision is, it doesn't stop the work that we're doing to try and increase services in

06:50Shrewsbury. And what I've done is set up a sort of a strategic group, I call it STIG, to

06:55try and make it sound sexy. It's the Shrewsbury Transport Integration Group. And that's all the

07:00rail providers, Network Rail, the council, the bus providers, the bid, the chamber, everyone

07:05together saying, well, actually, how together can we integrate transport? Can we improve

07:11what goes on at our station? Could we get a platform extension? Can we get a footpath?

07:16Can we double-deck the car park? Could we get a shop? People are shocked when I say Shrewsbury

07:21Station has 2.2 million passengers, and there is nowhere to buy a newspaper. It's time we

07:27unlocked the station and got the facilities and the services that we need. So it's something

07:31I'm really passionate about. Every business, in every quarter, when the chamber do their survey,

07:37every quarter, the feedback is businesses want more trains and more buses. So it's really

07:42a key driver for me.

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