Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department has taken to merge highway records into a single digital record to simplify conveyancing highways searches.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport (DfT) recognises the value of improving access to highways information for the purposes of conveyancing.
For the Strategic Road Network, National Highways has taken significant steps to simplify its own land ownership records. Conveyancing highways searches are received through the National Highways Customer Contact Centre, before being directed to the relevant regional spatial planning team. To further support transparency, National Highways has created a spatial highway boundary dataset, updated weekly using data from HM Land Registry, Ordnance Survey, and its own asset data. This assured dataset is available to the public through the National Highways Open Data Portal and allows users to easily identify National Highways’ land ownership.
For local roads, the records most relevant to conveyancing searches are owned, maintained and published by local highway authorities. At present, DfT has no plans to consolidate this data into a single digital record.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of implementing a scheme equivalent to Fuel Finder for the cost of charging electric vehicles.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to improving the transparency of public electric vehicle charging infrastructure costs. Under the Public Charge Point Regulations 2023, chargepoint operators are required to clearly provide the price of charging at public chargepoints in pence per kilowatt hour (or pound per kilowatt hour).
These regulations also require operators to share open data on charging costs free of charge, among other data fields. Both these measures allow drivers to compare public chargepoint costs and choose the best rate.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of taking steps to help prevent price differentials for different types of users of EV charging points.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle.
The Government are aware of the cost differential between those who can and cannot install a dedicated EV charger at home and continue to work with Ofgem and others on measures to keep the cost of EV charging affordable for consumers.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has had with the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee on establishing a crime and policing working group to help tackle disability hate crime on public transport.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Ministers and officials regularly seek advice from the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee on the issues which most affect disabled people when travelling, including disability hate crime. The Department is committed to ensuring everyone, including disabled people, are and feel safe when using the transport network. We have an ambitious, evidence-based programme of work to improve personal safety on transport, working across government and with partners including the British Transport Police. We have just launched a new survey to determine the prevalence of crime and anti-social behaviour on the network which will help us to better understand the scale of the problem, who is affected and when and where these incidents take place. This will enable us to better target policy and activities to tackle these issues and make the transport network safer for everyone.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to promote active travel.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport and Active Travel England (ATE) are working with local authorities to boost walking, wheeling and cycling across England. On 12 February, the Government announced almost £300 million of funding to boost walking, wheeling and cycling with £222.5 million awarded to local authorities across England.
ATE also funds a range of wider projects to enable more active travel, including Bikeability cycle training, Walk to School Outreach and Bike Bike Revival activities. ATE also provides funding to Sustrans to maintain and upgrade the National Cycle Network.
In addition to funding, ATE provides training for local authority staff to enable the delivery of high-quality walking and cycling schemes, as well as design workshops and design assurance reviews of schemes under development.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department is taking steps to promote active travel in new housing developments.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Active Travel England (ATE) is an executive agency of the Department and a statutory planning consultee for new housing developments comprising at least 150 homes or 5 hectares in site size. In discharging this function, ATE makes recommendations to improve infrastructure and measures that will support active travel journeys.
Where there are no locally set standards for cycle parking, ATE’s planning team recommends that the standards in Table 11-1 of LTN 1/20: Cycle Infrastructure Design are applied to new dwellings. This seeks the provision of one secure and ideally covered cycle storage space per bedroom.
Criterion 9 of ATE’s planning application assessment toolkit – which helps to gather evidence and assess the active travel merits of new developments – promotes the provision of high-quality facilities including showers, lockers, changing rooms and drying areas for cyclists in non-residential settings.
It is for the relevant local planning authority’s enforcement team to address instances where a developer does not comply with active travel provisions secured through a planning application.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government about design standards in new dwellings to allow for sufficient securely enclosed cycle storage to accommodate at least one bike per head.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Active Travel England (ATE) is an executive agency of the Department and a statutory planning consultee for new housing developments comprising at least 150 homes or 5 hectares in site size. In discharging this function, ATE makes recommendations to improve infrastructure and measures that will support active travel journeys.
Where there are no locally set standards for cycle parking, ATE’s planning team recommends that the standards in Table 11-1 of LTN 1/20: Cycle Infrastructure Design are applied to new dwellings. This seeks the provision of one secure and ideally covered cycle storage space per bedroom.
Criterion 9 of ATE’s planning application assessment toolkit – which helps to gather evidence and assess the active travel merits of new developments – promotes the provision of high-quality facilities including showers, lockers, changing rooms and drying areas for cyclists in non-residential settings.
It is for the relevant local planning authority’s enforcement team to address instances where a developer does not comply with active travel provisions secured through a planning application.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Housing, Committees and Local Government on requiring all new community buildings to have storage space for outdoor clothing and equipment.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Active Travel England (ATE) is an executive agency of the Department and a statutory planning consultee for new housing developments comprising at least 150 homes or 5 hectares in site size. In discharging this function, ATE makes recommendations to improve infrastructure and measures that will support active travel journeys.
Where there are no locally set standards for cycle parking, ATE’s planning team recommends that the standards in Table 11-1 of LTN 1/20: Cycle Infrastructure Design are applied to new dwellings. This seeks the provision of one secure and ideally covered cycle storage space per bedroom.
Criterion 9 of ATE’s planning application assessment toolkit – which helps to gather evidence and assess the active travel merits of new developments – promotes the provision of high-quality facilities including showers, lockers, changing rooms and drying areas for cyclists in non-residential settings.
It is for the relevant local planning authority’s enforcement team to address instances where a developer does not comply with active travel provisions secured through a planning application.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure compliance with active travel provisions agreed by developers during the planning process.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Active Travel England (ATE) is an executive agency of the Department and a statutory planning consultee for new housing developments comprising at least 150 homes or 5 hectares in site size. In discharging this function, ATE makes recommendations to improve infrastructure and measures that will support active travel journeys.
Where there are no locally set standards for cycle parking, ATE’s planning team recommends that the standards in Table 11-1 of LTN 1/20: Cycle Infrastructure Design are applied to new dwellings. This seeks the provision of one secure and ideally covered cycle storage space per bedroom.
Criterion 9 of ATE’s planning application assessment toolkit – which helps to gather evidence and assess the active travel merits of new developments – promotes the provision of high-quality facilities including showers, lockers, changing rooms and drying areas for cyclists in non-residential settings.
It is for the relevant local planning authority’s enforcement team to address instances where a developer does not comply with active travel provisions secured through a planning application.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring local authorities to (a) provide (i) active travel routes, (ii) all-weather surfaces and (iii) appropriate signage and (b) regularly clear encroaching vegetation.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government recognises the merits of enabling local authorities to deliver and maintain high-quality, well-signed active travel routes to support its economic growth, health and net zero missions. Active travel can help to revitalise high streets, enable people to live longer, healthier lives and reduce transport emissions. In line with the Government’s devolution agenda decisions on the design, delivery and maintenance of active travel routes are best made at the local level by local authorities in consultation with local communities.