§ Mrs. GillanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will estimate the costs incurred by each local authority in England in preparing provisional local transport plans. [109700]
§ Mr. Hill[holding answer 11 February 2000]: The move to a five-year planning cycle will produce administrative savings for local authorities (by offering greater certainty of future funding and removing the need to prepare plans annually). The wider public participation, more effective partnership working and better monitoring associated with local transport plans will lead to some additional costs, but we have no information on which to base an estimate of their scale.