Roads Minister, Baroness Vere
As you will remember, Steve Rotheram wrote to Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, at the beginning of June.
This was a major breakthrough for our campaign and you can read the letter here.
It covered many of the points we asked him to raise and we hoped it would open the door to more constructive dialogue in relation to the Port of Liverpool Access Road proposal; specifically regarding better alternatives.
The Metro Mayor's intervention is so important because, despite roadbuilding falling outside the remit of the role, transport is very much central to his work.
An organisation which advocates better public transport, promotes active travel (cycling and walking), wishes to see the Port of Liverpool and the freeport concept grow... and seeks money from central government to pursue these ambitions, must clearly have developed strong links with the Department for Transport.
These existing relationships and this 'soft power' are things we hope to tap into in order to support our calls for a better solution to port access.
After all, Sefton is part of the City Region!
We know from experience that, frustratingly, those in power at the DfT have a nasty a habit of delegating the task of replying to letters, to others.
So, it comes as no surprise that this has happened again.
In this instance, instead of Grant Shapps, the reply came from Roads Minister, Baroness Vere.
The letter is interesting.
We've heard much of it before, and it repeats many of the assumptions and statements made by National Highways and other Ministers over the years.
However, there are also one or two new nuggets of information that we're following up on with the Mayor's office and Sefton Council.
As ever, once we've had a chance to understand these some more, we'll offer our take on things in a follow-up piece.
In the meantime, you can read the Minister's reply in full, below:
