HC Deb 24 October 1983 vol 47 cc4-5
4. Mr. Chapman

asked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on his Department's policy for new road construction work and traffic management in the Greater London area.

Mrs. Chalker

The Department has a substantive trunk road programme to benefit Greater London over the next few years as the M25 nears completion. Traffic management is currently a GLC responsibility. Our proposals for reallocating highway and traffic management responsibilities in London were published on 7 October and I am holding consultations about them.

Mr. Chapman

Does my hon. Friend agree that there is no valid reason why the north London lorry box concept should not be implemented immediately by the GLC, and that the two-year delay since the scheme was ready to be implemented by the previous GLC fails to benefit anyone? Will she also bear in mind that if the GLC is incapable of taking this responsibility many people would wish to see the responsibility removed from the GLC?

Mrs. Chalker

As I am sure my hon. Friend knows, when the idea was put up it seemed sensible and the Department considered that it should be implemented. Matters have changed a little, but I look for commonsense solutions—not blanket bans—which will benefit all the boroughs concerned and not simply pass the problem of lorry control from one borough to the next.

Mr. Higgins

I congratulate my hon. Friend on her well-deserved promotion. When responsibility for traffic management is taken from the GLC, will she review the need for many bus routes which seem to be slowing not only private vehicles but buses?

Mrs. Chalker

I thank my right hon. Friend for his kind remarks. I shall do my best in my job.

Traffic management schemes in London are many and varied. It is high time that we had the best schemes for the major routes in terms of both public transport and private traffic. That will be our strategy for central London.

Mr. Robert Hughes

I join in congratulating the hon. Lady on her promotion, but ask with incredulity how someone of her intelligence can believe that the involvement of three separate bodies dealing with roads in London—the Department, the London boroughs and a joint voluntary committee, which has yet to be set up— can possibly be more efficient than a properly planned integrated system.

Mrs. Chalker

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind remarks.

The three-tier system of local government in relation to transport was criticised by the Select Committee. The Government propose that the Department will make the strategic decisions and that the boroughs, which already join together on a voluntary basis in planning many routes, will continue to do that. Two are better than three.