§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the policy of the rights of way section of her Department is regarding answering the telephone to members of the public on(a) 01173–728–379, (b) 01173–728–957 and (c) other numbers. [169379]
§ Alun MichaelI assume that my hon. Friend is referring to the difficulties he experienced in getting through to officials in the rights of way branch at Temple Quay House in Bristol on 26 April. The building was experiencing intermittent problems with incoming calls on that day, which is why several attempts had to be made before he was successful.
In normal circumstances telephones are answered promptly. The rights of way branch has a "group pickup" facility, which links all the telephones in the team, and enables them to take each other's calls when colleagues are absent or away from their desk. This is what happened when the successful call was responded to by a member of the team.
In addition these telephones have a voicemail facility so that callers can leave a message if they wish to, should there be no response.
§ Mr. AllenTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will set out the history of the request to close the footpath at Cuillan Close, Rise Park; when her Department expects to compete the paperwork necessary to allow Nottingham City Council to close the footpath; and if she will make a statement. [169380]
§ Alun MichaelNottingham City Council applied on 20 October 2003 to have the area around the footpath designated under Schedule 6 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. Following an examination of the evidence provided in the second round of applications for designation, I announced my intention to designate 20 areas, including this one, on 9 February. Since the announcement, Officials at Defra have prepared the detailed digital maps necessary for the legal process and consulted the relevant local authorities about them.
I have laid the order that designates this area of Nottingham, along with areas in Brighton and Hove, Leeds, York, Middlesbrough, Oldham, Swale, Wirral and the London Borough of Hillingdon. It will come into effect on 25 May.
The local authorities concerned can now proceed to consider whether to make orders to divert or extinguish rights of way for the purpose of crime prevention.
1388WThe time taken to complete the process is as frustrating for ministers as it is for MPs and councillors, so I am looking at whether we can strengthen the process for the future, but this is a formal legal process which has to be done centrally.