§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether it is their intention that the Royal Parks Agency should reduce traffic using the West Carriage Drive of Hyde Park to single lane in each direction and whether this proposal has been fully discussed with the Department of National Heritage and the Department of Transport with the relevant Highway and other authorities in Westminster, Kensington and beyond, and with users, including London Transport and the appropriate taxi-drivers' associations, and with the Garden History Society, and whether it has in all cases received approval; and
What is the increase in the number of parking spaces that would be provided in the West Carriage Drive of Hyde Park under the Royal Parks Agency's recent proposals for narrowing the West Carriage Drive; and
What is the status of the Agency's "indicative only" proposals at the north and at the south end of the West Carriage Drive of Hyde Park and whether it is in accordance with OECD's recommended practice for parts of a road to be developed before the "macroenvironmental aspects" of the whole scheme have been examined; and
Whether the road works which the Royal Parks Agency is proposing to the West Carriage Drive take account of the works which will be necessary when Crossrail is being constructed and what co-ordination there is between the parties to these works, Westminster City Council, and others whose interests may be affected; and
Whether the Royal Parks Agency has made the traffic studies on which the current proposals to reduce traffic flow in the West Carriage Drive of Hyde Park are based available to all the parties affected by this project.
§ Lord Inglewood:Responsibility for the subject of these questions has been delegated to the Royal Parks Agency under its Chief Executive, Mr. David Welch. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter to Lord Kennet from the Chief Executive of the Royal Parks Agency, Mr. David Welch, dated 11 December 1995.
I have been asked by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for National Heritage to reply to your Parliamentary Questions about proposals for controlling traffic on the West Carriage Drive in Hyde Park. I have replied separately to your question about the new Royal Park.
The Royal Parks Review Group's report on Hyde Park, which has been accepted by the Government, was 98WA critical of the negative effect of traffic on the parks and the lack of facilities to enable pedestrians to gain access to the parks and to cross the roads within the parks. The group recommended that the agency investigate ways of reducing the impact of traffic in the Royal Parks. As a result, we commissioned traffic consultants and following their report, we have drawn up proposals for a number of traffic calming measures on West Carriage Drive.
The proposal you refer to is currently being considered by Westminster City Council under the provisions of Department of Environment Circular 18/84, which sets out the procedures for submitting planning applications for developments on Crown land. The procedures involve consultations with all relevant parties, including highway authorities and the Traffic Director for London as appropriate. Public transport does not run through the Royal Parks and we do not normally consult the taxi drivers' associations or the Garden History Society on this sort of proposal.
The agency is kept informed of progress on Crossrail and, according to current plans, our proposals for West Carriage Drive are not expected to affect the Crossrail project in any way.
The proposals currently under consideration by Westminster Council only concern the provision of speed tables, incorporating pedestrian crossings, at Temple Gate and in front of the Magazine on West Carriage Drive. The road width would not be reduced since the existing parking bays on either side of West Carriage Drive mean it is already single carriageway in each direction. Introducing the speed tables will in fact make it safer as they will prevent motorists travelling along empty parking spaces in the inside lane and then having to swerve into the outside lane when they meet a parked car, as frequently happens at present. It will also allow motorists to pull into and out of parking spaces at the road side more safely. If implemented, these proposals will result in a net loss of 12 parking spaces in Hyde Park, because they include the removal of the car park at the old Serpentine Restaurant site and its return to parkland.
We submitted our long-term proposals for traffic calming on West Carriage Drive to Westminster City Council at this stage for information only, in order to show how the planning application for the speed tables/pedestrian crossings in the central section of the park fit into the eventual plan for the road. We appreciate that we shall have to carry out traffic impact and any other environmental assessments that may be appropriate in relation to our proposals concerning Victoria Gate and Alexandra Gate and the right turn into West Carriage Drive. When we have identified funding for this stage of the proposed works, we will submit a formal application to Westminster Council under the Circular 18/84 procedures. The proposed crossings currently under consideration by Westminster are intended to slow down traffic at these points, but we would not expect them to affect the amount of traffic using the park and do not therefore consider it necessary to carry out traffic flow studies on these particular aspects of the proposals.