Hyde Park Corner and Marble Arch

HC Deb 18 July 1956 vol 556 cc1193-6

27. Mr. Russell

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation whether, in view of the fact that traffic at Hyde Park Corner often gets choked up in an immovable mass, he will experiment with a return to the former system by which traffic between Constitution Hill and Hyde Park would drive straight across the centre, by the road now unused, and be controlled by traffic lights or police.

Mr. Watkinson

Comprehensive proposals for improving the flow of traffic at Hyde Park Corner are under consideration. Meanwhile no purpose would be served by reverting, as my hon. Friend proposes, to a system which, after wide experience, was abandoned in 1926.

Mr. Russell

Is my right hon. Friend aware that when that scheme was abandoned traffic was nothing like so congested as it is now? Would he not agree that it would be much better to have an orderly regulation of traffic going across the junction, stopped by traffic lights or police, and the other traffic similarly stopped, instead of the disorderly chaos that occurs at intervals now?

Mr. Watkinson

That does not seem to fit in with the figures, which seem to show that the roundabout is entirely successful. For example, the number of vehicles using the roundabout has gone up by 25 per cent. and the delay has been reduced by 30 per cent., comparing the figures for 1954 with the position in 1925. So, on the whole, we have got a measurable improvement, although I quite accept that it is not nearly good enough.

Mr. Stokes

Does not the right hon. Gentleman consider that a census at Hyde Park Corner would show that about 80 per cent. of the vehicles between 9 and 10 o'clock in the morning have only one person inside them? Would not a solution of the traffic problem of London be to forbid parking in the streets within five miles of Charing Cross?

Mr. Watkinson

I agree; I think the right hon. Gentleman's estimate of cars with only one person in them is possibly correct. They are the largest contribution to congestion in inner London. I would not go as far as the right hon. Gentleman's suggestion of banning them all, but I agree that we have to restrict the parking of that kind of vehicle.

28. Captain Pilkington

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation whether he can yet say what improvements are to be carried out to increase the flow of traffic at Marble Arch and at Hyde Park Corner.

39. Lieut.-Colonel Lipton

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation what plans he has made to reduce traffic congestion at Hyde Park Corner and Marble Arch.

Mr. Watkinson

I attach great importance to getting the right comprehensive scheme for improving traffic conditions at Marble Arch, Hyde Park Corner and Park Lane. Detailed consideration is now being given to the related problems of amenity, traffic flow and the details of the roundabouts, but the study is not yet complete.

Captain Pilkington

How long has this consideration been going on? Is it not time that action was taken?

Mr. Watkinson

Quite frankly, it does not interest me how long consideration has been going on. I am only interested in how soon I can do the job, and that will be as soon as possible.

Mr. G. R. Strauss

Does not the right hon. Gentleman appreciate that the length of time likely to elapse before anything is done may have some relationship to the length of time during which the matter has been considered by the Ministry without any action whatsoever?

Mr. Watkinson

I think that the right hon. Gentleman knows that there are difficult problems, as I said in this House recently. There is the difficulty of whether we ought to knock down Decimus Burton's screen at the entrance to the park, or destroy the lodges on the fringe of Hyde Park, things about which a great many people feel very strongly. I do not think the time that has been taken, if it is considered to be long, has been entirely wasted.

Lieut.-Colonel Lipton

The right hon. Gentleman has still not told us what he is going to do and when he is going to do it. Unless he does something about the creeping paralysis of traffic in London the right hon. Gentleman will be driven— and this is probably the only driving he will do—to the banning of private cars from central London altogether.

Mr. Watkinson

I hope that the hon. and gallant Member for Brixton (Lieut.-Colonel Lipton) will facilitate the final stages of the Road Traffic Bill when it returns to this House, because that is what I want.