Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to publish his Department's response to the public consultation on National Highways' Strategic Road Network Initial Report for Road Investment Strategy 3.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We anticipate the Draft Road Investment Strategy will be published shortly alongside the summary of responses to our consultation on National Highways strategic road network Initial Report. I would like to thank you and your constituents for your contribution to the consultation in relation to improvements to the A1. I will ensure you are notified alongside other interested parties when the documents are published.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what guidance his Department has provided to (a) local authorities, (b the police and (c) hospitals on the enforcement of rules relating to parking spaces for the disabled.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Currently, both local authorities and private parking operators providing parking facilities are required under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people and to provide them equal opportunities to access services.
In respect of local authority parking, the Secretary of State’s ‘Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities in England on Civil Enforcement of Parking Contraventions’ sets out the parking enforcement framework for the 98 percent of English local authorities that have acquired civil parking enforcement powers. The police have no powers to enforce parking contraventions within these local authority areas, except at safety-critical pedestrian crossings, and the Department does not issue advice to the police.
Local authorities have powers to safeguard parking places for disabled people and the Department has published ‘Blue Badge scheme local authority guidance (England)’.
Although off-street private car parks are required to make reasonable adjustments under the above-mentioned equalities legislation, the form those adjustments take are up to individual operators, who can best judge what is appropriate within their car parks. Often private car park operators provide Blue Badge spaces in their car parks but there is no legal basis for this and, as such, they are essentially advisory.
In respect of hospitals, the Department for Health and Social Care guidance ‘NHS car-parking management: environment and sustainability, 2015’ notes the importance of providers enforcing Blue Badge bays and dedicated Blue Badge car parks to ensure their use is not abused by non-Blue Badge holders. Enforcement is a matter for the relevant NHS Trust.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has received the Oxford to Cambridge Arc Roads Connectivity Study commissioned by his Department.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
We are expecting to be in receipt of the Oxford to Cambridge Arc Roads Connectivity Study shortly.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the eligibility criteria for applicants to the Blue Badge scheme who have irreversible medical conditions; and whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of exempting such applicants from the requirement to undertake a renewal process for their Blue Badge.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Applications to the Blue Badge scheme are not dependent upon condition but are based on the need of the applicant to park closer to their destination. People with long term medical conditions could receive a badge if they meet the eligibility criteria. Local authorities are responsible for administering the scheme locally and all local authority administrators have the discretion to add a ‘not for reassessment’ marker to individual Blue Badge records, including for applicants with long term conditions.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to East West Rail's report entitled 2019 Bedford to Cambridge Route Option Consultation: Public Feedback Report, whether his Department has (a) had discussions with representatives of the East West Rail Company on the provision to the public of data demonstrating the geographic distribution of consultation postcards to postcodes during the 2019 non-statutory consultation into the East West Rail route and (b) plans to require East West Rail Company to release that data.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department has had no specific discussions on the provision of this data; however I am aware that East West Rail Company is in the process of removing any personal details to ensure the data complies with data protection regulations, and will publish it on its website once this process is complete.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the latest cost estimates are for each phase of the East West Rail project; and how those costs compare with the cost estimates first submitted for each phase of the project to the Treasury.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Connection Stage One of East West Rail, enabling services from Oxford to Milton Keynes, was originally part of the ‘Western Section Phase 2’ of the programme before it was configured into Connection Stages. In the Phase 2 Outline Business Case submitted HM Treasury in 2019, the Anticipated Final Costs for Phase 2 were estimated at £1.1bn.
The current Anticipated Final Cost of Connection Stage One outlined in its Full Business Case is £1.3bn.
Plans, including costs for the other connection stages are at an early stage of maturity and still in development. We will release further details in due course.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has instructed Highways England to review their speed of response for providing permits for roadworks to enable water companies to meet their targets set by Ofwat in relation to leakage reduction.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Water companies are not required to seek permission from Highways England to work on the strategic road network (SRN), only to give notice. In cases where planned work would cause disruption or clash with other plans, Highways England may ask the water company to adjust the day or time of the planned works.
Highways England is in dialogue with the utilities industry to forge closer relationships, in order to proactively support its roads delivery programme and the industry’s requirements on the SRN.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 27 April 2020 to Questions 34321 and 38037, when the audit trail which his Department is undertaking with the Rail Delivery Group to identify and validate whether the information on station classification contained in the access map is accurate will be completed; and when changes resulting from that audit trail are planned to be implemented.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department is not undertaking any audit work with the Rail Delivery Group. We are currently trialling some accessibility audits on a small number of stations which if successful will better inform our accessibility investment decisions in the future. This is due to complete in the autumn. The Rail Delivery Group remain responsible for ensuring the accessibility data on the National Rail Enquiries website remains accurate and up to date.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what type of measurements of air quality are taken along the A1 in Bedfordshire; in which locations those measurements are so taken; what recent assessment has been made of the air quality in those locations; and if he will publish the results of the measurements taken at each of those locations in each of the last three years.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
A monitoring station that is part of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA)’s Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) is located at the roadside alongside the A1, north-west of Sandy, Bedfordshire (52.132417, -0.300306). This monitoring site measures levels of nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxides, PM10 particulate matter and PM2.5 particulate matter. The measurement data from this monitoring site is reported in near real-time and is updated every hour and is available online on DEFRA’s UK Air website. The monitoring site was compliant with air quality limit values for the past three years.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many journeys have been undertaken on average on each day on the A1 in Bedfordshire in each of the last three years; and at which locations those traffic measurements have been taken.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The table attached contains the data on how many journeys have been taken, on average, each day on the A1 between junctions 6 and the A1/A14, in each of the last three years. These traffic measurements have been taken from sensors embedded in the road surface at those locations also identified in the table attached.