§ Mr. Wheelerasked the Secretary of State for Transport whether he has received London Regional Transport's report on coach terminals in London.
§ Mr. David MitchellI have now received LRT's report on the final phase of their transportation consultants' study into London coach terminals, which provides a thorough assessment of London's coaching problems. I am arranging for copies of the study to be placed in the Library. LRT and its consultants recommend that a major new coach terminal should be developed at Paddington and the chairman of LRT has indicated in a covering letter that the quickest way forward to achieve this solution would be by way of a parliamentary Bill.
21WWhile recognising the strong opposition from the Westminster city council and local residents' groups, the LRT board believes that the local traffic environment can be improved as a result of altered road access to the proposed terminal and controls on coach stopping.
However, in the light of the representations I have received from my hon. Friend the Member for Westminster, North and from the chairman of Westminster council's planning and development committee, I am writing to LRT to say that I have decided that it would not be appropriate to take this matter forward by means of a private Bill in this Session of Parliament, nor am I persuaded that a single hub terminal is necessarily the right solution.
Accordingly, I am considering what would be an appropriate form of inquiry to enable the arguments for a single hub terminal compared with the merits of a number of smaller terminals to be properly aired in public before a decision is taken.