FTA and the Transport Hub: putting transport in the political spotlight

For the fifth consecutive year, the Freight Transport Association (FTA) is joining together with an eclectic coalition of eight other transport organisations from across the breadth of transport opinion to host the Transport Hub events at the 2014 party conferences.

Kicking off this weekend with the Labour conference in Manchester the Transport Hub will once again showcase key debates in transport policy. On Sunday evening (21 September) FTA and the Transport Hub will host a private dinner to be attended by all the Shadow transport team. This will be preceded at 5.30pm by the ‘Big Interview’ with Mary Creagh MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport.

As a longstanding fixture in the party conference calendar FTA will host its own fringe event “Transforming transport – securing and supporting the next generation of employees” on Tuesday (23 September) at which Richard Burden MP (Shadow Minister for Transport) and a representative from UNITE the Union will speak. The FTA event will focus on the subject of the shortage of professional drivers in the industry and possible ways of solving the problem. FTA members have already voiced their concerns, saying that the shortage of drivers in the UK is a massive problem and is seriously affecting their operations.

Karen Dee, FTA’s Director of Policy said:

“The Transport Hub will once again be putting transport in the political spotlight, attracting leading political and industry figures as well as conference delegates and others to discuss the issues affecting the movement of people and goods. FTA is proud of the leading role it has played in the organisation of the Transport Hub, and looks forward to another highly successful party conference season.”

The diverse and interesting Transport Hub programme of events will bring together party members, transport professionals, journalists and politicians at the three main party annual conferences.

The Transport Hub will take place at:

Labour Party Conference – 21–24 September, Manchester
Conservative Party Conference – 28 September-1 October, Birmingham
Liberal Democrat Conference – 4-8 October, Glasgow

Transport Hub will host more than 30 events at the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat conferences, including interviews with the top figures in each party on the transport plans they will put to the country in 2015. Full event information and details of how you can get involved are available on the Transport Hub website: http://www.transporthub.org