§ Lorna FitzsimonsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what further decisions he has reached on Public Safety Zone Policy and administration since the announcement on 31 July 1998. [87251]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonSince my announcement we have been developing our proposals on two fronts, relating to the definition of new Public Safety Zone boundaries and to the preparation of guidance to local planning authorities for use in considering planning applications. Work is well in hand on the redefinition of the existing Public Safety Zones. We shall notify the local planning authorities and airports concerned of the grid co-ordinates of the new Zones during the next couple of months, and we shall follow this up by providing the data to them in map form. We shall also define Public Safety Zones for Teesside and Sheffield City airports, which were mentioned in the December 1997 consultation document.
Meanwhile we are today issuing for consultation a draft of a circular to local planning authorities in Great Britain containing guidance for use in considering applications for development within Public Safety Zones. This recommends that new housing development, and most types of non-housing development, should not be approved within Public Safety Zones. Copies have been placed in the Library.
Subject to the progress of this consultation we hope to bring the new arrangements into effect later this year in relation to the airports which already have Public Safety Zones, and to Teesside and Sheffield City. At that stage the residual work of the Civil Aviation Authority in administering the Public Safety Zone policy will be transferred to the Department. We hope by next spring to have established Public Safety Zones at the other airports for which modelling work suggests that this would be justified.