YORK-BORN Business Secretary Vince Cable relived his childhood trainspotting interest in the city while backing a bid for funding to kickstart a stalled development.

Speaking in the Commons, York Central MP Hugh Bayley asked Dr Cable who grew up in Holgate, to meet him and city representatives to discuss the authority’s application for Critical Infrastructure Investment funding to revive work on the York Central site.

Dr Cable said he knew the site from his York upbringing and remembered it as being “strategically important for childhood trainspotting” as well as having housing and regeneration potential. He agreed to a meeting and said he was “certainly keen to take this forward”.

Mr Bayley said: “Dr Vince Cable knows the York Central site well and is aware of its potential for economic growth, so I want him to meet myself and the council to discuss the bid before the funding is allocated,” said Mr Bayley.

Council leader James Alexander said the Critical Infrastructure Investment programme was aimed at “de-risking economically-important growth sites.”