Parking Places (Variation of Charges) Bill

Debate between Marcus Jones and David Tredinnick

3rd reading: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons
Friday 3rd February 2017 Commons Chamber

[David Tredinnick]

My hon. Friend helpfully leads me into an area that I wish to discuss in a moment, which is the impact of pricing on car parking charges generally. Let me just make this further point to him and to the House: it is equally important that councils should consider the effect of increased parking charges on the high street. To that end, the clause makes provision for a consultation requirement so that councils take on board the views of local businesses and residents when they are looking to increase parking charges on an existing traffic order. They must already consult when a traffic order is set up, but it is proportionate to expect them to consult if they are raising charges during the life of the traffic order. I say to my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay that he should not fear that this Bill—the de minimis Bill, to quote my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch—will increase parking charges; it cannot do that.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Marcus Jones)]

rose—

[David Tredinnick]

I will resist my hon. Friend the Minister, who looks as though he could spring to the Dispatch Box, because I know that he will make a speech later on.

[Mr Jones]

indicated assent.

[David Tredinnick]

The Minister is nodding his head. I am sure he will reassure Members that I have not put anything in the Bill that allows local authorities to increase charges. I am simply saying that they need to ask people before they contemplate such a move, which they are already in a position to do.

--- Later in debate ---

[David Tredinnick]

I accept that London is a special case and, of course, my hon. Friends and I do not represent London, but I thought it was instructive to make the point that the charges here are so high.

To follow up on the remarks by my hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley (Craig Whittaker), it is important to look at how the provisions will operate in practice. For greater accuracy, I asked the Commons Library to provide some figures on the scale of natural settlements—known as built-up areas to most of us—in the country. According to the 2011 census, we have in our country 56 cities, 696 towns with a population of 5,000 or more, and 1,590 villages with a population of between 1,000 and 5,000. Each one of those settlements could be affected by the Bill’s provisions. Pride is a dangerous word in parliamentary life—we can sometimes get too proud—but I am absolutely delighted to have been able to introduce a Bill that does not just affect a particular constituency matter but has a national impact. This Bill is going to have huge ramifications for business.

[Mr Marcus Jones]

indicated assent.

[David Tredinnick]

I am very pleased to see my hon. Friend the Minister nodding.

--- Later in debate ---

[David Tredinnick]

One is always looking for help in this place, and my hon. Friend almost makes my closing remarks for me. We are talking about a simple three-clause Bill that has been reported by a Committee without amendment, that seeks to allow councils to reduce parking charges without consultation but that insists on consultation if they want to increase charges.

Before I sit down, I should like to tell my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay that he has proposed a helpful new clause. He clearly feels passionately about the issue, as it impacts his town, and he is right to come to the Chamber and get us to scrutinise it in some detail, but I hope that I have been able to give him the reassurance that he requires. I look to my hon. Friend the Minister to flesh out any points that I have not made and give the Government’s approval. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay and will resume my seat.

[Mr Marcus Jones]

I welcome the opportunity to comment on the new clause and the important points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay (Kevin Foster). My hon. Friend the Member for Bosworth (David Tredinnick), who is my constituency neighbour, has already set out in significant detail his views on the new clause. Although the intentions expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay are good, as they generally are, and in the best interests of constituents, my hon. Friend the Member for Bosworth was right to speak against the new clause. I shall set out the Government’s view on why we do not think that agreeing to it is a good idea.

The Bill will create the power to make regulations to simplify the procedures local authorities must follow if they want to lower their parking charges. It will introduce a consultation requirement if local authorities want to increase parking charges. Parking provision plays an important role in allowing people to access high streets and town centres. Town centres continue to play an essential role in the lives of communities, and parking charges can be an important factor when people choose which ones to visit. As some out-of-town shopping malls provide free parking, councils need to think carefully about the level and range of parking available. Parking charges will no doubt play an important role in people’s choices. The Government are committed to promoting town centres and high streets as thriving places at the heart of communities.

I strongly believe that it is right and proper for local authorities to consult their local communities and town centre businesses when proposing to increase charges. I stress that this is not about the Government trying to dictate to local authorities how to conduct their parking policies. We are asking councils, in a localist way, to take into account the views of local communities before increasing charges. I have a good example from my constituency. The local district council has not listened to the views of local people and has increased car parking charges. As a result, its car parking income has dropped by £350,000. That shows why it is important to consult local people and listen carefully to what they say because the views of local people and business owners are quite often the views of the very people who use and depend on those car parks for their livelihoods.

Regional Growth Fund

Debate between Marcus Jones and David Tredinnick

Tuesday 1st November 2011 Westminster Hall

[David Tredinnick]

I understand that the hon. Gentleman speaks on behalf of his motor manufacturing constituency. Obviously, there is demand for more regional growth fund support. Where we are now with the RGF is very helpful, and it is successful for reasons that I will develop.

[Mr Marcus Jones]

I am proud to have worked with my hon. Friend the Member for Bosworth (David Tredinnick) in promoting the MIRA enterprise zone and RGF bids. Does he agree that it shows the importance of cross-boundary working, with his constituency in the east midlands and my constituency just over the width of the A5 in the west midlands? The fact that the local enterprise partnership for Coventry and Warwickshire has strongly backed the MIRA development shows how the new system is starting to work and bear fruit.

[David Tredinnick]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, who has worked tirelessly for this project. I sat with him in his council chamber—in his former chair, I think—in Nuneaton not long ago and considered these issues. We can talk about the boundaries—parish, borough, county and regional—in the areas that we represent, but the point is that the footprint of the MIRA park is enormous. It covers a very large area of the east and the west midlands—areas that desperately need help.

I will return to the subject of the debate, Mr Gray, before you call me to order. I would not want to fall foul of the Chair. There were many concerns earlier this year when MIRA did not succeed in round one of the RGF because the technology park really could not succeed without that support. We are talking about not an add-on, or bells and whistles on a machine, but part of the gearbox without which the project could not go ahead. There has been huge investment on this former bomber aerodrome site.

[Mr Jones]

I assure my hon. Friend that I will not take much more of his valuable time, but does he agree that in addition to the growth and jobs that the MIRA development will create, RGF funding will also change the physical complexion of the A5? It will therefore benefit not only the MIRA development, but the east and the west midlands, which rely heavily on the A5 corridor.

[David Tredinnick]

My hon. Friend is right. I do not want to detain the House for long as many colleagues wish to speak, but I shall refer him to correspondence that I have received from worried constituents and former councillors on transport issues such as not improving the roads, traffic flows that, when measured seem to be too great for the existing roads, and problems on the A444/A5 Red Gate junction, which he will know well. There are also other local issues such as Higham lane roundabout—all concerns about the national highway. With the second round of applications to the regional growth fund, we will solve those problems and all those roundabouts and junctions will be improved. Indeed, the roads must be improved because otherwise heavy vehicles cannot get in safely. As MIRA said, subsequent to the RGF2 bid submission, those improvements will go ahead.

MIRA technology park will receive £20 million from the regional growth fund. I spoke to MIRA’s chief executive yesterday and looked at other aspects of the scheme, and I understand from the Minister’s Department that one or two issues concerning the impact on traffic and traffic changes need to be resolved. I thought that the Department had already dealt with such matters, but I have received reassurances that such problems will not obstruct the bid. I hope that the Minister will address that concern in his response.

The huge knock-on effect of the bid will not be confined to businesses but will have a massive impact on education and apprenticeships. Another leap forward that the Government have made is to improve, invigorate and release more people into the apprenticeship structure. Astonishingly, the Labour Government never really cracked that issue over 13 years. They were always out of kilter; there were never enough plumbers or enough this or that. It was a command economy approach that did not work. We are now freeing up the economy and giving people more responsibility. [Interruption.] I love heckling, Mr Gray, and if we had the time, I could not get enough of it. Seriously, however, we are talking about important issues.

Last night representatives from further education colleges visited the House, including Marion Plant from North Warwickshire and Hinckley college. We talked about the importance of developments such as the new Hinckley campus and the studio school that will come on stream in September 2012 with design apprenticeship training, and courses in advanced engineering and health and social care. She told me that there had been 500 applications for nine places. The demand exists, and we are heading in the right direction.

Last Friday I was contacted by Radio Leicester which asked me to do an interview about the increase in the number of apprenticeships in my constituency. I have received one or two other requests in the past, and I accepted that one immediately. There has been a phenomenal increase in apprenticeships in my constituency, which embraces Hinckley and lies adjacent to Nuneaton.

In summary, for all the complaints made by the hon. Member for Penistone and Stocksbridge—and I am sure there will be many other complaints from Opposition Members—something is stirring in the heart of England. Under this Government, there are more apprenticeships, and we are allowing institutions such as North Warwickshire and Hinckley college more say about how they run their affairs. There is less top-down government. I have just come from the Health Committee. We will not go into that issue now, but the Government are trying to give more power to doctors, which I welcome. The Government are succeeding in what they are doing, and the regional growth fund is an important part of that. I congratulate the Minister and his colleagues.

National Planning Policy Framework

Debate between Marcus Jones and David Tredinnick

Thursday 20th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Marcus Jones (Nuneaton) (Con)]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to today’s debate, which holds great significance for my constituents. I want to explain why I support the Government’s general approach in the draft NPPF and point to areas where I think it could be honed and improved. If the Government take on those suggestions, it might allay some of my constituents’ current concerns. To do that, we need to assess where we are coming from, with regard to the current planning system, and to consider where the proposals will lead our communities and how our communities will engage in the planning process in future.

The current system—the previous Government’s approach—was quite simple: there were top-down targets, with the Government deciding numbers, and local people could decide where to impose the Government’s will. It was a classic “Government knows best” approach. I applaud the current Government on their approach of freeing up local communities to set their own course and allowing them to set a local vision. It gives local people a real say in planning that vision and more control over their own destiny, which I think is incumbent on a Government led by the Conservative party.

It will be a day of liberation when the Localism Bill receives Royal Assent and the ghastly regional spatial strategies, which many of my constituents have feared for years, disappear. However, I fear that before we get planning liberation several of the local communities I represent might be caught with unwanted developments as a result of a lack of coherence in the planning strategy of the Labour-controlled Nuneaton and Bedworth borough council, where contradictory assessments of housing need have already lead to one unwanted development being imposed by the Planning Inspectorate.

We must also recognise that although locally based planning is vital, for consistency of approach we also need a strong national framework. I am encouraged by the draft NPPF that the Government have put before us and by their intention to balance the important concept of local planning with the fact that we are all living longer, more of us want to live apart than together and that we all need those homes for our children for the future, which is a major concern in many constituencies.

The draft NPPF cuts the current guidance down to size and puts it into a format that can be understood not only by planners in town halls, but by the communities we all serve. It is clear that if people put their local plans in place and get all their ducks in a row, based on clear evidence, their communities will be protected from speculative developers and the will of the Planning Inspectorate. It is clear that the local plan will hold primacy. However, I have some suggestions for the Government.

First, the NPPF contains a carrot-and-stick approach; the presumption in favour of sustainable development being the stick, and the fact that the presumption will not be effective if an evidenced-based plan is in place being the carrot. The Government must honour that principle, because some planning authorities are more advanced in putting together their local plans than others. We cannot have an indefinite and open-ended situation in which local authorities decide not to put local plans in place, but I think that we should give them the opportunity to put their local plans in place as quickly as possible by allowing a transitional period in which they can do that. I welcome the comments that the Minister made on that this afternoon.

[David Tredinnick (Bosworth) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Mr Jones]

I am sorry; unfortunately, because of the time I have left, I cannot give way.

Local plans must be based on up-to-date local evidence; they must not be predicated just on figures hanging around from the RSS if they are not appropriate to the local community. I hope that the inspectors who check those plans and the evidence base in them will look at truly local evidence, and do so with a fresh set of eyes, not through regional spatial strategy-tinted spectacles. I fear that, if the Government do not make sure of that, it will come back to haunt many of our communities.

Rail Services (Nuneaton)

Debate between Marcus Jones and David Tredinnick

Wednesday 8th December 2010 Westminster Hall

[Mr Jones]

As my hon. Friend knows, Nuneaton and Bedworth borough council takes in part of his constituency. People from Bedworth, too, have been disadvantaged by the timetable changes.

That brings me to the future of timetabling. Under the previous Government, there was an unfortunate tendency for too much political interference with timetabling. That often prevented operators from giving better services, including the sort of improvements demanded by my constituents. I was therefore greatly encouraged that the coalition agreement included the clear intention of looking at rail franchising differently, and of considering how the Office of Rail Regulation works so that we have a more powerful regulator. I hope that the Minister will assure me that the regulator’s role is to be strengthened, and that we will see improvements in rail services from my constituency.

I am aware of this week’s announcement on rail franchising, and I broadly welcome the statement. However, I am slightly concerned about the proposed west coast main line refranchising. That will be let from 2012 to 2026, when the first trains are projected to start running on High Speed 2. I was initially led to believe that HS 2 would improve high-speed rail capacity on the west coast main line. However, having had many conversations on the matter with various interested parties, I am slightly concerned that that may not be the case. Will the Minister assure the House that fast services on the west coast main line will survive post-HS 2?

[David Tredinnick (Bosworth) (Con)]

I thank my hon. Friend for allowing me to intervene. The problem affects my Hinckley constituents as it does those of surrounding areas.

I might be able to help my hon. Friend. I believe that the 16.10 Euston to Bangor train may stop at Nuneaton when the new Pendolino trains come into operation. My right hon. Friend the Minister of State at the Department for Transport made that point in a letter to a user group. Has my hon. Friend received information on similar lines?