Asked by: James McMurdock (Reform UK - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to support bus services in Essex.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Improving local bus services is a key part of this government’s growth mission. As announced in the King’s Speech on 17 July 2024, the government will introduce a Buses Bill later this session. This will put the power over local bus services back in the hands of local leaders right across England, including in Essex, to ensure networks meet the needs of the communities who rely on them. The Bill will seek to increase the powers available to local leaders to choose the model that works best in their area, whether that be franchising, high-quality partnerships with private operators or local authority ownership.
In addition, the government has confirmed an additional £925 million for the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support and improve bus services in England outside London which is in addition to the introduction of a new National Bus Fare Cap at £3 from January 2025, bringing total bus investment at the Budget to over £1 billion. Local authorities can use the £925 million to introduce new bus routes, make services more frequent and protect crucial bus routes for local communities.
The government will continue working closely with local transport authorities including Essex County Council, and others, to deliver better bus services throughout England.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Reform UK - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for driving tests in South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is upholding road safety standards while it works hard to reduce car practical driving test waiting times.
Measures in place to reduce waiting times for customers at all driving test centres (DTC), include the recruitment of new driving examiners (DE), conducting tests outside regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays, and buying back annual leave from DEs.
DVSA also continues to deploy DEs from areas with lower waiting times into those where waiting times are longer.
As part of recent recruitment at DTCs that serve the South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency, DVSA has made offers to five potential new DEs. This is made up of two DEs at Basildon DTC and three at Southend DTC.
As part of ongoing recruitment, DVSA is aiming to fill a further three vacancies at Tilbury DTC, three at Basildon DTC and one at Southend DTC.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Reform UK - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of fatalities on roads in Essex.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This Government takes road safety very seriously and reducing those killed and injured on our roads is a key priority. The Department is currently considering policy options in this area.
Local authorities are responsible for the management of local roads, within the rules set by Government, including setting local speed limits where the national limit would not be appropriate.
The Safer Roads Fund is an innovative, non-competitive programme that provides funding for the most high risk ‘A’ roads in England. Essex County Council received funding of £4.96m as part of the Safer Roads Fund for the A113 and A104.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Reform UK - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help reduce congestion in South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This Government is committed to maintaining and renewing our road network so it can serve all road users and is safe. Traffic management of local roads is the responsibility of local traffic authorities who are best placed to understand local circumstances and needs.
Traffic authorities are subject to the statutory network management duty which requires them to manage their roads to secure the ‘expeditious movement’ of all traffic including pedestrians, with a view to reducing congestion, and they have a wide range of tools already available to them to enable this.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Reform UK - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to extend contactless payments to additional train stations in Essex.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We have committed to expanding Pay As You Go (PAYG) contactless ticketing to further stations in the South East, with six stations on the Chiltern railways line having already gone live in June. This expansion will include the entire c2c network and the 19 stations operated by Greater Anglia in Essex, where passengers will benefit from a better ticketing offer.
Unfortunately, this expansion has been delayed due to the cyber-attack at Transport for London (TfL). TfL are delivering necessary security measures, and the rail industry is working at pace to reschedule the launch, an update will be provided in due course.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Reform UK - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of train stations in South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has made no recent specific assessment of the adequacy of train stations in South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Reform UK - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve bus services in South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Good local bus services are an essential part of prosperous and sustainable communities. As announced in the King’s Speech on 17 July 2024, the government will introduce a Buses Bill later this parliamentary session, which will put decision-making into the hands of local leaders across England, including in South Basildon and East Thurrock. This will allow local areas to determine how best to design their bus services so that they have control over routes and schedules.
The government has also committed to increasing accountability by providing safeguards over local networks across the country and empowering local transport authorities through reforms to bus funding.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Reform UK - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the trial of e-scooters in Basildon.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The national evaluation of the e-scooter trials was published in 2022 and was a comprehensive review of the e-scooter trials. The Essex trial was one of the 10 trials selected for the user and resident survey.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Reform UK - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many EV charging points there are in South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency; and what estimate her Department has made of the potential demand for the future installation of such charging points.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Data on electric vehicle charging devices in the UK, held by the Department for Transport (DfT), are sourced from those installed or funded under Government approved grant schemes and from the electric vehicle charging platform Zapmap. The latest data available for the South Basildon and East Thurrock parliamentary constituency is at 1 July 2024, and reflects the constituency boundary at that point. This shows there were 15 public charging devices and that the Government has historically supported installation of 401 residential chargepoints, plus 41 workplace charging sockets. DfT does not collect data on private household charging except when installed or funded under a Government grant, therefore the true number of charging devices may be higher than recorded in these figures.
To support the electric vehicle transition more charging infrastructure will be needed across the country. The exact number in a location will depend on a variety of factors such as availability of off-street parking, future charging behaviour and local driving patterns.
South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency is part of Thurrock Council and Essex County Council. Under the Government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund, Thurrock Council has been allocated £843,000 in capital and resource funding and Essex County Council has been allocated £9,102,000. This will help them work with industry to rollout additional local public chargepoints supporting future demand.