§ Sir T. Beamishasked the Minister of Transport (1) in which council areas the experimental offset double white line system has been tried; with which councils she consulted before her public announcement of the decision to discontinue this 137W experiment; and if she will give an assurance that she will not make public announcements in future about matters normally within the authority of county councils without prior consultation;
(2) why she gave instructions to discontinue the experimental offset double white line system on the A259 road between Seaford and Saltdean, initiated by the county surveyor of the East Sussex County Council with her approval, without any prior consultation with the County Council and in spite of the fact that accidents and injuries relevant to the markings have both been reduced on this section of the road during the experimental period;
(3) if, in view of the fact that the East Sussex County Council, the Newhaven and Seaford urban district councils, the Chailey Rural District Council and the Peacehaven and Telscombe parish councils all share the opinion that the experimental offset double white line system on the A259 between Saltdean and Seaford should be continued, she will cancel her instructions to end this experiment on this road;
(4) when she sought the opinion of the Traffic Committee of the Central Conference of Chief Constables about the experimental offset double white line system on roads before deciding to discontinue this experiment; and what views they expressed.
§ Mr. John MorrisIn my letters of 18th April and 7th June to the hon. and gallant Member I gave a list of the Councils concerned in these trials and explained why the lines must be removed.
My right hon. Friend initiated this experiment, which was not a matter of the type normally within the authority of the county councils, to see whether these off-set lines could be used generally on three-lane roads to assist safe overtaking.
In assessing the value of the lines the experiment must be viewed as a whole. The significant increases in accidents at every site where the effect of the lines could be accurately calculated showed clearly that the lines had not contributed to road safety as we had hoped. Consultation with county councils and the Traffic Committee of the Central Conference of Chief Constables could not have altered this fact and was not undertaken.