§ 9. Mr. Hal Millerasked the Secretary of State for Transport, what representations he has had from motoring organisations concerning his plans in the Transport Bill to control privately operated public car parks.
§ Mr. HoramEight organisations commented on the consultation paper on additional parking controls issued by the Department last August.
§ Mr. MillerFollowing the discussion of the Bill in the House, has the Minister had time to reflect and is he now in a position to drop this totally unnecessary control proposed on private off-street parking?
§ Mr. HoramNo, not at all. We have support from the Standing Committee, and we shall go ahead on the lines indicated. In the hon. Gentleman's constituency of Redditch new town there are about 2,000 off-street parking spaces which are all under the control of the local authorities. We wish them to exercise all that control in other circumstances which are not so propitious.
§ Mr. Ronald AtkinsDoes my hon. Friend agree that these controls are long overdue? New York was doing this in 1945.
§ Mr. HoramIndeed. The sort of traffic measures that we have had over the last 10 or 15 years have contributed to a better quality of life in our towns and cities.
§ Mr. Norman FowlerWould it not be better if the Minister considered London rather than New York? Is not the crucial point that in London, where these powers already exist, the scheme introduced by the old Labour-controlled GLC was overwhelmingly rejected by the public and was rightly scrapped by the incoming Conservative-controlled GLC? There is no justification for these extra powers, and the Government would get much more credit if they scrapped these proposals altogether.
§ Mr. HoramAbsolutely not. There is a party political difference over what hapened in London. The Labour Party put forward proposals which had more support than the hon. Gentleman indicates, and the Tories when they came in dropped those proposals. That by no means indicates that the Tories were right.