Land Use Transportation Study

HC Deb 06 December 1972 vol 847 cc1283-5

9. Mr. Adley

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will widen the scope of the Land Use Transportation Study being undertaken by his Department jointly with the Bristol City Coun- cil to include the whole of the new Avon county area.

Mr. Peyton

The study will concentrate initially on Bristol and its neighbourhood but later work will cover the whole of the new Avon County.

Mr. Adley

Is my right hon. Friend aware that there are people in Bristol who feel that the transportation study is perhaps being produced by the Department more as a sop to people like me who ask awkward questions than as a genuine attempt, as the Tyne-Wear and Merseyside studies were, to arrive at a long-term answer to the many problems, which do not only involve Bristol? Does he agree that it does not make sense to restrict the area of the study to a tight little circle around the city?

Mr. Peyton

It is not the intention that the study should be so restricted. The representation is more or less designed to ensure that it will not be. I assure my hon. Friend that I have far more desire to learn from him than to present him with sops.

Mr. Michael Cocks

Will the right hon. Gentleman use his best offices to make sure that the study is produced as quickly as possible, because, whether it is widened or not, it is essential that it be produced quickly, as the growing uncertainty and unease throughout Bristol will continue until the problem is sorted out properly.

Mr. Peyton

I appreciate the extent of feeling in the area and the complexity of the problem. I shall do my best to see that the study is completed as soon as possible, but I want it to be comprehensive.

Mr. Wiggin

Is my right hon. Friend aware that in the arguments about the county of Avon it was consistently stated by his Department that Bristol was a centre for a larger area to include the county? It therefore seems strange that a transportation study can be made exclusively for the city of Bristol. Will it include the future of Lulsgate airport?

Mr. Peyton

My hon. Friend will perhaps do me the favour of reading my reply. I have no intention that the study should be confined to the city of Bristol. I have said that it will certainly cover the whole of the new county of Avon, and will if necessary go wider than that.