Bumbling Mr Brown astonished Lancashire's leaders by claiming the county's transport network is getting BETTER and the area is getting all the funding it needs.

He denied Lancashire was losing out on funding to areas like London
– despite official Government figures revealing the capital receives
more than £300 a year more per person in transport funding than the
North West.

Official Treasury figures reveal in 2006/07, the North West was handed £276 per person in transport funding – compared to the £319 per person UK average and the whopping £614 per person funding enjoyed in London.

Mr Brown told the Lancashire Evening Post: "I don't think it is true to say that transport spending has been skewed to one particular area.

"In every part of the country we are spending (on) transport according to the needs of these different areas.

"We are doing a lot and we will continue to do a lot.

"Not every scheme can be accepted but large numbers of schemes have
been moving forward with a great deal of speed."

The Prime Minister made the claims during a questions session at 10 Downing Street.

He was asked by the LEP if government investment favoured London at
the expense of Lancashire.

He replied: "We are investing in every part of the country."

He said the government was making £724m available to regions with major transport schemes "this year alone", as well as investing a further
£672m.

He said: "So we are moving forward."

The claim stunned the county's transport campaigners and MPs.

Preston businessman Peter Mileham, the national president of the British Chambers of Commerce, was told that issues with the M6 through Lancashire were "a parochial problem" when he met Prime Minster Tony
Blair two years ago.

He said: "How the blazes can it be parochial when there are millions of people using that stretch of motorway every day?"

Aiden Turner-Bishop, from the Preston branch of the Campaign for Better Transport, said there were plenty of "simple things" which could be done to improve transport.

He said: "The Prime Minister says it is all done 'according to need', but who decides what our needs are?

"It should not be some civil servant in Westminster – give us the money and let people in Lancashire who know our needs decide."

Preston Chamber of Trade chief executive Nicholas Watson said that the transport links into the city centre were "crucial to the economic survival" of shops.

He said: "It was 50 years ago this year that the Preston Bypass became the first section of motorway in the country, and we are still waiting for those missing link roads to connect our city centre to that motorway."

Mr Brown's comments come just days after Lancashire County Council's ruling Labour leader Hazel Harding claimed there was a "north-south divide" in road funding.

She said: "We do not get necessarily what we ought to in terms of our share of the pot."

Fylde Tory MP Michael Jack, said: "If (Mr Brown) has the odd five hours maybe he would care to reach our part of the North West by driving along the M6 motorway."

But Preston's MP Mark Hendrick said: "Everybody is getting more.

"Investment is very significant.

"I find it a bit strange, coming from Hazel (Harding), an impression that Lancashire is not getting its fair share."

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