Roads

HC Deb 03 February 2004 vol 417 cc610-2

6. Mr. Anthony Steen(Con) (Totnes)

If he will give guidance to local authorities on the percentage of expenditure in their transport budget that is appropriate to be spent on (a) road maintenance and (b) traffic-calming measures. [152276]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr. Tony McNulty)

It is a matter for each local authority to decide how to allocate its funding in order to meet the transport needs of its communities and to deliver the targets and objectives set out in its five-year local transport plan. It is not for the Government centrally to dictate to local authorities, although we work with them. We will resist going back to the heavy-handed centralisation that the Conservatives employed when they were in government.

Mr. Steen

While it is true that all local authorities have an awful lot of roads to maintain, and that Devon has more than the entire road system of Belgium, would the Minister agree that it is sheer madness for Devon and the many other counties like it to spend millions of pounds on road maintenance and, particularly, on widening roads sot hat traffic can go faster, and then to spend millions on putting in traffic-calming measures such as road humps and rumble strips to slow it down again? That is an enormous waste of public money and council tax payers' money.

Mr. McNulty

That is an interesting characterisation. Many of the villages in Devon are crying out for those humps for road safety reasons. This is a matter of balance for Devon county council. I had thought that the hon. Gentleman might congratulate the Government on increasing by 15 per cent. the amount of capital given to Devon in the local transport plan settlement before Christmas—it is now close to £28 million. When he mentioned madness, I thought he might be about to say that the Tories and Liberals who run Devon were mad to propose, as I understand it, the transfer of £1 million away from road maintenance to other priorities in the forthcoming budget. If there is madness, he should take the matter up with his colleagues on the county council.

Mr. Ken Purchase(Lab/Co-op) (Wolverhampton, North-East)

While the Minister is keeping these matters under close scrutiny, will he also recognise that, in terms of value for money and good spending practice, data need to be gathered on such matters as proposed red routes, so that we can check the data from before the introduction of the red route against the outcome and see whether the value for money that we are all looking for is actually being obtained? I would remind my hon. Friend that my borough is about to spend £750,000 on a red route and associated works, but we are not yet sure whether we shall be able to check the data against the current evidence.

Mr. McNulty

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this matter with me by correspondence before today. He knows that I am looking into it. It is important that bus priority measures should be implemented in an efficient and effective way. I know that he will be enormously grateful that altogether the west midlands are getting more than £80 million in the local transport settlement, a 9.3 per cent. increase on previous years. I will, however, investigate this specific matter and get back to him on it.

Mr. Eric Forth(Con) (Bromley and Chislehurst)

Does the Minister share my doubts about the efficacy of road humps? Is he at the very least able to pledge that he and his Department will be neutral on the subject? Ideally, I would like the Department to give some guidance to local authorities, because road humps can, in certain circumstances, delay emergency vehicles, damage the vehicles of ordinary citizens and create pollution. They are generally a menace.

Mr. McNulty

All those issues and more are fully taken into account before any scheme is put into place. There is full consultation on each scheme. Do I share the right hon. Gentleman's doubts? No. Do I share his perverse libertarianism? No.

Mrs. Anne Campbell(Lab) (Cambridge)

Will my hon. Friend ensure that, when speed bumps are considered by local authorities, guidance is given as to the needs of cyclists? It is comparatively simple to put a small dip in a road bump to accommodate cyclists, and doing so certainly makes it much safer for them.

Mr. McNulty

As and when it is appropriate, for road safety reasons, to install table platforms that cover the whole road, that will be done and cyclists will need to be aware of them. As and when it is appropriate for there to be gaps between the humps, for the benefit of both emergency vehicles and cyclists, that will also happen. Cyclists are fully taken into account, but the overwhelming priority must be to determine what the traffic calming measure can do for road safety. That consideration must remain paramount. My hon. Friend will be enormously grateful that Cambridgeshire has secured a 22 per cent. increase for its local transport plan.