§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessments he has made of the impact which his Department's funding of a bus lane on the New London Road, Chelmsford will have on(a) motorists, (b) traffic on roads running off the New London Road and (c) the number of people using buses. [90145]
§ Ms Glenda Jackson[holding answer 8 July 1999]: My Department has funded a local transport package for Chelmsford which encourages improved public transport, in line with our policies for integrated transport. It is for Essex County Council as the local transport authority, to decide on the detailed implementation of that package and to monitor the results. As we made clear in "From Workhorse to Thoroughbred: A better role for bus travel", published in March, a well-conceived scheme for bus priority can produce a rapid pay-back in time savings and improved service reliability.