§ Mr. Spencerasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the recent visits to Leicester by the Minister of State, the hon. Member for Hampshire, North-West, (Mr. Mitchell), and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Eltham (Mr. Bottomley).
§ Mr. David MitchellI have made two recent visits to Leicester. On 16 October I was pleased to attend an informal ceremony at Billesden to mark the completion of the A47 bypass at the village which will take 1,470 vehicles—22.7 per cent. off the villages' roads. I called on the Midland Fox Bus Company on 29 October for a discussion with the management and also visited the company's mini-bus depot. The company is running over 100 mini-buses from its depot; these provide competitive new services which mean a big improvement for the travelling public.
My colleague the Minister for Roads and Traffic chaired the East Midlands regional annual consultative committee on 19 November at the county hall and later had an informal tour of the Woonerf scheme at Worthington street which forms part of the Melbourne housing action area.