§ Mr. SteenTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what rural transport projects have been funded by the Countryside Agency in each of the last three years; what the average time was between the submission of funding proposals for such projects and a decision being made; what the average wait has been for allocation of funding for such projects which have been approved; and how many of these projects which have been approved are awaiting the release of funds. [85246]
§ Alun MichaelThe Countryside Agency has funded five transport grant programmes in the past three years on behalf of Defra. The Rural Transport Development Fund merged with the Rural Transport Partnership scheme in March 2001. The Parish Transport Grant has been running since April 2001. These three projects198W solely fund transport projects in rural areas. Two other schemes, the Wider Welcome and Market Towns programme, fund some transport related projects, but in the following table the data are integrated within the Rural Transport Partnership and Parish Transport Grant figures. This is due to the way the data is collected by the Countryside Agency.
Scheme Period Number of projects supported Average time for decision Number of projects awaiting release of funds Parish Transport Grant 2001–02 41 10 days 0 22002–03 76 10 days 109 Rural Transport Development Fund1 2000–01 111 3— 0 Rural Transport Partnership 2000–01 69 3— 0 2001–02 278 19 days 0 22002–O3 221 10 days 581 1 Rural Transport Development Fund was merged with the Rural Transport Partnership in April 2001. 2 Data from 1 April 2002 to 1 November 2002. 3 Not available. The Countryside Agency send out grant award letters immediately upon approval. All the projects currently being delivered are awaiting release of some funds, as no more than 90 per cent. of project funding can be released until the project is complete.