§ 14. Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what financial decisions he has made arising from the work of his Department's working party on the use of the River Thames. [24730]
§ Mr. NorrisThe River Thames working group was set up to provide advice on ways of maximising the use of the river for transport purposes. I shall consider sympathetically any proposals that may be put to me for furthering that objective.
§ Mr. SpearingHas the working group considered the support of provision and maintenance for piers? Does the Minister agree that that would be a major way of reviving the Thames, which we all want? They would cost less than some recent estimates have suggested and could help with seasonal traffic from Greenwich to Hampton court and the central London riverbus service proposed by Transport on Water. Would not such an investigation be superior to the possible sell-off of the piers proposed by the Port of London Authority?
§ Mr. NorrisI thought that the Labour party was in favour of abolishing peers. To revive passenger transport on the Thames, it is important to ensure that people can access the services sensibly and that services call at the places that people want to go to and from. That is one 14 of the major inadequacies of the present arrangements. I suspect that the hon. Gentleman understands that the river's meandering route through the capital and its tidal rise and fall make passenger transport on it less viable than we would like. The work that his Transport on Water organisation has done on that is bearing fruit and is being paralleled by, for example, the recent KPMG-London First report that showed that a hopper service for passenger transport on the Thames was practical. I look forward to hearing more about ways in which that can be translated into reality. If that requires support, then, without giving any commitment at this stage, I would certainly be prepared to consider it.