P ELECTIIIR
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Road transport champions win and Lose on polling day
c hristopher.waltonrarbi,co. uk POLITICAL CANDIDATES FROM from the road transport industry suffered mixed fortunes in last week's election.
Conservative Chris Kelly won the previously Labour-held seat of Dudley South, with a 43% share of the vote. Kelly, the son of Keltruck chairman Christopher Kelly and formerly marketing manager at the truck dealer, says: "1 shalt be taking an active interest in our vitally important industry."
He will be joined in parliament by fellow Tory Robert Goodwill, MP for Scarborough & Whitby, shadow roads minister and former truck driver, who also held on to his seat with 42.8% of the vote.
Former Seymour Transport boss Peter Carroll lost his bid to become MP for Maidstone and the Weald in Kent to Conservative Helen Grant. Carroll, who pledged during his campaign to be an "MP for road haulage" reduced the Conservative majority in the staunchly Tory seat by 8%, but still lost out by some 6,000 votes. As CM went to press, Carroll was not available to confirm what his next step will be.
Another significant casualty was Paul Clark, transport minister at the Department for Transport, who lost his seat in Gillingham and Rainham.
In an interview with CM last month (1 April), Clark had advocated increased modal shift and further investment in the road network to reduce congestion.
With the nature of the next government remaining unclear as CM went to press, the Freight Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association have both called on whoever takes over the running of the country to make transport the priority it deserves to be — and not let it be forgotten as the focus shifts to political reform and coalition building.