Minister in charge of local transport confuses Stockport with town …

A Conservative minister has been mocked for confusing Stockport with a town 124 miles away while on a planned visit.

Labour's Stockport MP Navendu Mishra shared a picture of the embarrassing mishap made in an email by Conservative MP Richard Holden - the roads and local transport minister no less.

Mr Holden planned to visit the Greater Manchester town but managed to mix it up in his email with Scarborough in North Yorkshire, a town on the North Sea coast which is a two and a half hour drive from Wellington Road in Stockport.

Mr Holden's office wrote: "I am getting in touch to let you know Minister Richard Holden, Minister for Roads and Local Transport, will be visiting your constituency on Monday 25th September to visit Scarborough bus interchange on Wellington Road, Stockport, SK4 1AF".

Mr Mishra posted on Twitter: "Good news that Conservative Minister @RicHolden might be visiting Stockport today. But I would like to inform him that Scarborough bus interchange is not on Wellington Road in Stockport."

While Stockport is not home to Scarborough bus interchange, it will soon be home to the transformed Stockport Interchange in what will become a new green space for residents in 2024.

The project is being managed by Stockport council, Transport for Greater Manchester, and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

The town is also set to benefit from HS2 with Stockport station providing a rail link to London in 79 minutes, although some reports have suggested that the leg of the network might not go ahead as planned due to spiralling costs.

Mr Holden was elected as Conservative MP for North West Durham in 2019 where he took the seat from former Labour MP Laura Pidcock.

The office of Richard Holden was contacted for comment.

References

1. ^{^} Rediscovered plans show FOUR Stockport Pyramids and how they might have looked (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)