Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if his Department will publish further guidance to local authorities advising them of the benefits of street play for children and of the powers that local authorities have to permit road closures in residential areas for that purpose.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department for Transport has no plans to publish guidance on Play Streets. It is for local authorities to decide whether or not to implement road closures.
Specific legislation covering Play Streets is provided in section 29 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. This enables local authorities to close roads for the purposes of street play, through a Traffic Regulation Order. This must be indicated on street with appropriate traffic signs.
Local authorities may also close roads under Section 16a of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, but this legislation covers special events, rather than specifically street play. An order under this section may only be made three times a year. Any subsequent orders must be approved by the Secretary of State.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps to reduce the length of closures which occur on major roads and motorways after a collision; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Highways England continues to improve the clearance times of incidents on the strategic road network. The duration of closures is closely monitored, with the aim to clear 85% of live lane incidents on motorways within 60 minutes. All incidents that fail this target are analysed to see where lessons can be learned. For the 2016-17 period Highways England achieved 85.93% and have subsequently set a new internal target of 87% for the 2017/18, demonstrating their continued determination to reduce delays and improve journeys for road users.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the timetable is for completion of roadworks and lane closures on the M62 between Hull and Manchester.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is upgrading the M62 between Leeds and Manchester to a 4 lane smart motorway to reduce congestion and improve journeys. This is part of the current £15 billion investment in England’s motorways and major ‘A’ roads. The section from Junctions 18 to 20 is expected to complete later this year. Work on the Junctions 20 to 25 section is anticipated to start in 2019/20. As with any road, essential maintenance and repair work is also required from time to time.
Highways England works hard to minimise the impact of major upgrades and maintenance on road users by carrying out work at night, or using narrow lanes to maintain the same capacity through roadworks, wherever it can.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will hold regular discussions with (a) Transport for London and (b) the Mayor of London on ensuring that roadworks, lane closures and maintenance works in Parliament Square and nearby are kept to a minimum at times when Parliament is sitting.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Ministers and officials from the Department for Transport have regular meetings with their counterparts in Transport for London and the Greater London Authority at which a variety of issues are discussed, including the impact of roadworks on London's traffic.
Transport for London, Westminster City Council and the Royal Parks Authority are each responsible for different roads near to Parliament Square, and all roadworks in the Westminster area are planned and managed in such a way as to minimise any disruption to traffic. The London area-wide permitting scheme also allows the relevant highway authority to request that roadworks are carried out at particular times.
TfL and others also regularly discuss the timing of, and potential disruption arising from, works in the vicinity of Parliament Square with the Parliamentary Estate. Where possible, roadworks are scheduled in such a way as to avoid disrupting Parliamentary Business: recent roadworks at Carriage Gates, for example, were scheduled to coincide with the February recess.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what mechanisms are in place to ensure that the public are made fully aware beforehand of planned road works to be carried out by contractors on trunk roads and motorways which involve either lane or whole carriageway closures.
Answered by Andrew Jones
A range of communications activities are used to inform members of the public about road works taking place on major A roads and motorways, including information issued to the media and updates to pages on the Highways England and Traffic England web pages.
In addition to this, letters are issued to organisations, businesses and communities affected directly by the works. Highways England will also undertake specific community and business-to-business meetings for larger scale closures within the local area of each project if required.
As a standard, information and updates are issued a minimum of seven days in advance wherever possible.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he plans to take to ensure that local highway agencies always give motorists sufficient and early notification of traffic delays, congestion and road accidents so that motorists approaching a black spot can use an alternative route; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Jones
Local authorities are responsible for managing their roads and are required through the Network Management Duty contained in the Traffic Management Act 2004 to do so in a way that provides safe, convenient and expeditious movement of traffic.
Providing timely and relevant information to road users is an important part of this, and it is for local authorities to decide how to ensure they provide this. They have a range of measures available to them, including CCTV to monitor the road network and identify incidents, variable message signs to show messages indicating road closures and diversions, and information provided through their website and to local radio stations.
Asked by: Lord Hoyle (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why Network Rail took the decision to close Rawlinson Lane, Chorley Road and Grimeford Lane in Adlington, Lancashire, at the same time to accommodate electrification of the Manchester to Preston via Bolton and Chorley line.
Answered by Baroness Kramer - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Treasury and Economy)
Network Rail took the decision to close the roads simultaneously in order to coordinate with the railway closures. These kinds of closures are planned up to two years in advance. In this area Network Rail had five bridges to rebuild and two possession slots; the intention was to split the bridge rebuilding over two years, doing two in 2014 and three in 2015. Due to environmental impacts identified at Grimeford Lane last year that particular bridge was rescheduled from the original plan to be completed this year.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what guidance his Department issues to the Highways Agency on phasing works on motorways to reduce congestion and journey times; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by John Hayes
The Highways Agency is delivering the biggest ever programme of investment in our national roads – £24 billion from the start of this current Parliament through to 2021. This will ensure we have a strategic road network that continues to help sustain economic growth and meet the needs of the road user.
Work is planned very carefully to minimise disruption as far as possible, and to ensure the safety of road users and road workers. Where the Agency has to close lanes for safety reasons, this is done at quieter times and at night when possible. They aim to keep motorways open during works rather than closing them and diverting traffic onto local roads less suitable for motorway traffic. Also, a high proportion of road works are lifted on bank and seasonal holidays to limit disruption to road users.
The Highways Agency has a process in place for the planning of road works, referred to as the Network Occupancy Management process. This process sets out the procedures for the management of road space occupancy with the primary objective of reducing road user delay. In simple terms, the process was designed to aid the Agency in its legal obligation, under Section 59 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991; to coordinate and where possible minimise the impact of works. The process provides a clear definition of roles and responsibilities and a set of structured management procedures.
The process is underpinned by a road space booking system which was designed to provide accurate and up to date information on lane closures on the Strategic Road Network. This system is populated with all planned road works and analyses their proximity and timing to other works. The system also includes a delay cost model allowing the impact of occupation on traffic to be estimated which supports an evidence based decision making approach embodied in the process.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to prevent the Highways Agency keeping motorways out of action for any longer than necessary in the aftermath of incidents.
Answered by John Hayes
I agree that roads should be re-opened as quickly as possible following an incident to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum. Unfortunately, roads do need to be closed when critical infrastructure repairs cannot be performed whilst part of the carriageway remains open. In addition, when an incident has resulted in serious injury or a fatality, the police have a duty to conduct a thorough investigation in accordance with their recently revised Collision Investigation Manual.
A review of the closure procedures for motorway incidents has been undertaken; this has been carried out jointly with the Home Office, Association of Chief Police Officers, Fire and Ambulance services, Department for Transport (DfT) and the Highways Agency, to identify what can collectively be achieved to reduce incident clear up times.
The review, known as CLEAR (Collision, Lead, Evaluate, Act, Re-open) aims to reduce the time taken to re-open motorways following an incident and will minimise both the economic impact of closures and the delay experienced by road users.
In addition, laser scanners are being operated by 27 police forces across England to significantly reduce the time taken to gather essential evidence at incident sites.
At this time, there is no intention of introducing legislation as the Highways Agency is already mandated to reduce the time that motorways are subject to restrictions or closures following incidents.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve the management of traffic in the aftermath of motorway incidents.
Answered by John Hayes
I agree that roads should be re-opened as quickly as possible following an incident to ensure disruption is kept to a minimum. Unfortunately, roads do need to be closed when critical infrastructure repairs cannot be performed whilst part of the carriageway remains open. In addition, when an incident has resulted in serious injury or a fatality, the police have a duty to conduct a thorough investigation in accordance with their recently revised Collision Investigation Manual.
A review of the closure procedures for motorway incidents has been undertaken; this has been carried out jointly with the Home Office, Association of Chief Police Officers, Fire and Ambulance services, Department for Transport (DfT) and the Highways Agency, to identify what can collectively be achieved to reduce incident clear up times.
The review, known as CLEAR (Collision, Lead, Evaluate, Act, Re-open) aims to reduce the time taken to re-open motorways following an incident and will minimise both the economic impact of closures and the delay experienced by road users.
In addition, laser scanners are being operated by 27 police forces across England to significantly reduce the time taken to gather essential evidence at incident sites.
At this time, there is no intention of introducing legislation as the Highways Agency is already mandated to reduce the time that motorways are subject to restrictions or closures following incidents.