§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to paragraph 1.28 of the Government's White Paper "A New Deal for Transport", by what means he intends to put greater emphasis on listening to transport users. [57686]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonWe have learnt a lot about people's attitudes to transport and its impacts on the environment and the economy through surveys such as the British Social Attitudes survey carried out by Social and Community Planning Research. We intend to build on this through further surveys, consultation and research projects and by encouraging Rail User Consultative Committees, the National Federation of Bus Users and the London Regional Passenger Committee to contribute fully to the Government's objective to improve services for passengers. My Department will be issuing a number of documents over the next few months, seeking views on specific policy measures raised in the Transport White Paper. The new Commission for Integrated Transport will bring together all interested parties, including transport users, to make recommendations to Ministers, and at the local level, local authorities will be consulting widely with local people, businesses, transport operators and community groups when drawing up their local transport plans.
§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to paragraph 1.43 of the Government's White Paper "A New Deal For Transport", what is the value of freight grants committed in the year 1997–98; what is his latest estimate of the value of freight grants in each subsequent year for which figures are available; and when he plans to extend freight grants. [57691]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonIn 1997–98 we doubled the freight grants budget to £30 million and this was substantially taken up. We have increased the funds available in 1998–99 to £40 million and to date £32 million of this has already been committed. Still further funds will be made available for an increase in the freight grants budget in future years, if there is a demand.
We intend to bring forward legislation to extend the freight grants regime to include coastal and short sea shipping once a consultation on the details of the scheme has been carried out and a suitable legislative opportunity arises.
§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to paragraph 1.21 of the Government's White Paper "A New Deal For Transport", if he will establish targets for(a) investment in public transport and (b) the increased number of people using public transport over the next five years, broken down by transport mode. [57690]
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§ Ms Glenda JacksonIncreased investment in public transport, involving public and private sectors, is an essential part of our integrated transport strategy. As well as our plans for Government expenditure on public transport announced following completion of the Comprehensive Spending Review, new public-private partnership will lead to substantial additional investment in transport infrastructure. We will also give local authorities powers to introduce congestion charging and workplace parking levies, which will produce guaranteed streams of new funding for investment in transport improvements locally.
Local authorities will be required, as part of their local transport plans starting next year, to set targets on transport indicators looking five years ahead. It will be for local authorities to determine which targets to set, but these are likely in many cases to include targets for the increased use of buses and rail. Building on that, the Government will be asking the Commission for Integrated Transport to provide advice on the setting of national transport targets, including for public transport use.
§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to paragraph 1.36 of the White Paper on the future of transport, what plans he has to set noise standards for(a) motorways, (b) trunk roads, (c) other urban roads and (d) other rural roads; and if it is his intention that money should be spent on existing roads to make them quieter. [57687]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonAs the White Paper explains, the European Commission has proposed a framework Directive on environmental noise to harmonise methods of calculating noise exposure so that targets and action plans could be developed, initially by Member States but eventually at EU level. It would be premature for us to consider the possibility of setting noise standards until this work is further advanced.
In "A New Deal for Trunk Roads in England" we announced that in future, whenever a trunk road needs to be resurfaced, and where noise is a particular concern, we shall ensure that the most appropriate noise reducing surfaces are used. In addition to this, we intend to establish new criteria for providing noise mitigation for serious noise problems on existing trunk roads and a ring-fenced annual budget for this work. We will make a further announcement about this in due course.