HC Deb 12 December 1956 vol 562 cc59-60W
106. Mr. G. Wilson

asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation when the report of the committee set up to carry out a survey of parking in inner London will be published and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Watkinson

The Committee has submitted to me an interim Report, which is being published today. Copies will be placed in the Vote Office this afternoon. It includes an outline scheme for the control of parking in the whole of the inner area of London, and a detailed scheme for Mayfair and for two areas in the City of London. The Committee recommends that a system of comprehensive parking control, covering the use of parking meters wherever parking is permitted, should be tried first in the Mayfair area.

The Committee's Report is a thorough and expert examination of the problem. I hope that local authorities, on whom the Road Traffic Act, 1956, places the responsibility for initiating parking schemes, will study it most carefully. The Government propose to bring the relevant sections of the Road Traffic Act into force on 1st January, 1957, and I look forward to receiving the first schemes as soon as possible after that. In view of my quasi-judicial position as the approving authority for parking schemes, it is not possible to say more in regard to the Committee's Report than that I consider it will form an excellent starting point for the preparation and consideration of such schemes.

An invitation will shortly be sent to the Metropolitan Boroughs' Standing Joint Committee to discuss the whole subject with me.

I would also like to endorse the emphasis given in the Report to the need for strict enforcement of parking schemes. My right hon. and gallant Friend the Home Secretary is fully in agreement over this, and the Commissioners of Police of the Metropolis and of the City of London have given assurances that they will do their utmost to secure compliance with the law.

In conclusion I would like to thank Mr. Samuels and the members of the Committee for preparing their interim Report on this difficult subject so quickly and efficiently; I look forward to receiving before long supplementary reports from the Committee on certain aspects of the problem which it was unable, in the time set it, to cover in the interim Report now published.