HC Deb 08 May 1991 vol 190 c531W
Mr. Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what progress has been made in the study promised in "This Common Inheritance" of the relationship between development and travel patterns and ways of locating development to reduce travel distances and to increase transport choice;

(2) when he will issue the planning guidance proposed in paragraph 6.35 of "This Common Inheritance".

Sir George Young

The Departments of Transport and the Environment have jointly commissioned this research. The contract was let to ECOTEC Research and Consulting Ltd. with Transportation Planning Associates in mid-Febuary and will be completed by the end of May 1992. The project is still at an early stage.

The environment White Paper proposes that the research should lead to planning policy guidance. The Departments would normally expect to publish the results of the research, usually within six months of receiving the final report. Depending on the findings and conclusions of the research, my Department would hope to have draft planning policy guidance for consultation by late 1992.