Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to deal with traffic congestion in towns and cities.

The Government has an ambitious strategy for tackling congestion in our cities and towns and improving performance on our roads. This strategy includes providing significant investment in both our strategic and localroad network, as well as working with highway authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships to encourage more sustainable transport including buses, light rail and walking and cycling.

In addition, Part 2 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 ("the Act") specifically places a Network Management Duty (NMD) on each local traffic authority in England to manage its road network to secure the expeditious movement of traffic on its own network and to facilitate the same on the network of other authorities. Coordination of activities and actions between authorities is an especially important element of network management.

The Act is intended to provide better conditions for all road users through coordination and proactive management of the road network. It provides a key tool in the Government's strategy to tackle congestion through a range of initiatives including for example, better management of street works in order to minimise disruption and delivering fairer systems for civil parking and traffic enforcement.