At Durham's Town Hall today, Fiona Hall spoke to mark the beginning of the Railfuture national conference and AGM.

Here is the text of her remarks:

Good morning and welcome to Durham.

Durham is at the heart of the North East of England,

which is why I have my constituency office just down the road.

And the railway really shows Durham off at its very best.

MEPs in Strasbourg today narrowly (334-315) rejected a proposal by the European Commission to delay the auctioning of greenhouse gas allowances to avoid a further drop in the price of carbon. The European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) was originally introduced to incentivise investments in low carbon technologies by putting a price on polluting greenhouse gas emissions.

Responding to Lord Adonis's report on the North East economy, Liberal Democrat Leader Nigel Martin has criticised Durham County Council as part of the problem.

Nigel said: "Time and again, in recent years, the Liberal Democrats have called for county council to invest in apprenticeships, in business startups and engineering training. And on every occasion the Labour leadership at county hall has refused to put their money where their mouth is.