Pavement Parking

Baroness Butler-Sloss Excerpts

Wednesday 21st February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

My Lords, in London I jump for my life from bicycles on the pavement. Can the Minister add bicycles to the list when he is looking at enforcement?

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

I, too, jump out of the way of bicycles. I take the noble and learned Baroness’s point; it is a serious issue, and enforcement should be more rigorous.

Refurbishing Trains: Contracts

Baroness Butler-Sloss Excerpts

Tuesday 12th December 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

I cannot give any specifics in terms of days, but the department is certainly aware of this and will bring it on as soon as possible. I assure the right reverend Prelate that, if I can ascertain exactly how many days, I will write to him with the information.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

My Lords, it may be my fault, but I have not actually understood whether the current HS2 contract with the company is or is not going to go forward.

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

The contract with HS2 and Alstom will go forward in terms of phase 1.

Railway Station Ticket Offices

Baroness Butler-Sloss Excerpts

Tuesday 13th December 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

My Lords, will the Minister take back to her department that it is extremely difficult ever to find anyone on any platform in the West Country?

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

A voice behind me said, “Including passengers”, but let us not go there. I will take that back to my department.

Highway Code

Baroness Butler-Sloss Excerpts

Monday 7th February 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

I agree with my noble friend: some cyclists are absolutely outrageous when they look at red lights and assume that they are not compulsory. The Government are of course doing the roads policing review, which we will publish in due course. But the whole point about these changes to the Highway Code is that they make things safer for pedestrians. As I have pointed out, they already had priority if they had started to cross the road—there was no change there—but there have been some other minor changes that will make things clearer and safer for pedestrians.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

Has a government department considered cyclists riding abreast on country roads? I live in Devon, where the roads are extremely narrow and used by cars, a lot of horses and, of course, vehicles.

[Baroness Vere of Norbiton (Con)]

Many noble Lords will have heard me raise this point before. I am extremely concerned about rural roads: my view is that, sometimes, motorists seem to think that they have precedence on them, but they do not, and that really concerns me. We are very clear about cyclists: if you are riding on a rural road, or indeed any road, ride in the centre if it is quiet, if there is slow-moving traffic or if you are approaching a junction. If you are on a rural road, of course you would move aside at some point, if there were a car waiting behind you. But, if you are travelling in a car at 30 miles per hour behind a cyclist who is travelling at 15 miles per hour and you are delayed for one mile, you have lost just two minutes of journey time. I sometimes think that we need to be more cognisant of the users on rural roads especially—not only cyclists but horse riders.