§ 4.35 p.m.
§ Second Reading debate resumed.
§ Baroness Lane-FoxMy Lords, the London Regional Transport Bill has very great relevance for everybody who is disabled, although I think that I would have chosen a more suitable moment to say this than between two such important announcements.
If this was not obvious before, the mammoth lobby by every description of disabled person during the debates in another place left little doubt of the interest in it felt by those who are less than mobile yet wish to be active. Let me make it clear that the recent increase in appreciation of our difficulties leaves me personally spellbound. This Bill gives the chance to get the 490 improvements firmly entrenched. In some quarters there is still concern that the Bill does not give enough weight to meeting the travelling needs of disabled persons and that these should be more clearly written into the Bill. That said, there is no doubt that the Department of Transport has a specially good record among Whitehall departments for its work for disabled people over the past few years.
Now, this work is guided by the panel of advisers on disability appointed by the Minister of State, members of which are all experts on different aspects of disability. Seminars and conferences on many transport issues are planned which aim to get together the transport operators, planners and designers with disabled users or would-be users of transport. There is an active research programme on many aspects of the improvement and, not least, the Department of Transport's work on the design of the new generation of London taxis able to accommodate chairborne disabled people in their wheelchairs.
The department is very active on the community transport front, such as in helping to encourage proper development of that dreamy service, Dial-a-Ride. Dial-a-Ride consists of vehicles provided through the boroughs in order that wheelchair people may ring up and book suitable transport to accommodate them while still in their wheelchairs. As one who has too often been washed up and unable to find any vehicle to shift me, the news of this advance is of huge importance. The National Advisory Unit for Community Transport, funded by the department, is going to fund the London branch of the national advisory unit to concentrate on developing special services for disabled people in London. Enormous improvements have been made by transport operators in recent years. For example, a stimulus has been provided by the department and by the notable addition to the scheme of people such as Claudia Flanders, a consultant on disability problems to the National Bus Company, and Bill Buchanan, special adviser on the disabled to British Rail.
In the National Bus Company and coach scene, many National Bus Company and other municipal PTEs and private operators now provide ramp or lift equipped vehicles as well as innovations such as lower steps and better hand-rails to help elderly and other ambulatorily uncertain people. On British Rail, all major main-line stations are now equipped for wheelchair access as well as providing many aids for passengers with impaired sight or hearing. All new inter-city rolling stock is now able to accommodate wheelchair-bound passengers in first-class compartments, and there are many more improvements under way in inter-city and surburban services.
As an observer with experience in harder travelling eras, I am astonished by the speed of improvement. It is particularly pleasing to note the degree of current research, through the National Advisory Unit for Community Transport, towards door-to-door travel. Link-ups with bus, train and special vehicles or taxis sound really very much like a fairy tale to a hardened old traveller like me.
Mark you my Lords, this is compared with the past; and there is still good reason why some younger disabled less forged with patience from experience of 491 earlier lack of facilities, still see today's travelling difficulties as appalling and probably vindictive towards their career and future. Many are very worried that, without GLC backing all the plans for Dial-a-Ride will be brought to naught. Nevertheless many enthusiastic comments have been made by the Government about the scheme, and I understand that their present stance is that London Regional Transport will go all out on co-ordinating provision, though actual funding will depend on the boroughs. No doubt the Minister will put me right about this point.
I know that the Royal Association of Disability and Rehabilitation for instance, is one of the bodies which believes that the travelling needs of the disabled public are not firmly enough entrenched in the Bill, and I plead with the Minister therefore to think about this. Here we have an inspired service, fit to change the lives of so many, and while it has been encouraged by the Department of Transport it has depended so much on voluntary effort and initiative. It seems to me that this is a service deserving of every spot of help available, always providing that the boroughs and organisers manage it in a thrifty and sensible way. Of course, it would be a disaster if it were wrecked by over-lavish plans made in the belief that someone has to pick up the bill, whatever the cost. While heartily congratulating the organisers, I appeal to them to watch the cost more carefully in these days of scarce resources.
I am told that the new C2X taxis will be in use by the end of 1985. Although I fear that I am one of the 3 per cent. of wheelchair users who are too tall to be accommodated by its design—I weep about that myself—it is still excellent news that it will solve the problems of so many. I am, for instance, advised that there is little hope of any full-blooded overall adaptation to buses to take wheelchairs in the foreseeable future, so the prospect of door-to-door transport depends so very much on these taxis and on Dial-a-Ride.
It is reassuring that the Bill provides that the annual report made by London Regional Transport to the Secretary of State will include an account of progress made on improving access and facilities for disabled people. What is more, Ministers have said that the Board of London Regional Transport will have one member with special responsibility to ensure that the needs of disabled people continue to be a priority. Remembering the department's record of the development of services for disabled people, I have every confidence that this will be recognised as a continuing and integral part of transport development in London.
Perhaps most of all I welcome the fact that the consumer body, the London Regional Passenger Committee, is to have at least one person specifically to represent the interests of disabled people. But I have to say that those of the more unwise disabled people who are less believing of the Government's good intent will require these matters to be stated in the Bill before they are convinced of it. As there is so much wrong with London Transport, as catalogued by the noble Lord, Lord Tordoff, the very least I could do would be to give every good wish to the present LRT Bill and to the LRT, as I hope it will be in the future.