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Miss Emma Nicholson: I am glad to hear the Minister's description of the code of conduct. He knows, however, that farmers are subject to many different Government guidelines and, possibly, grants to assist them. Will he consider suggesting to his colleagues, or putting in place himself, a one-stop shop for farmers, to which they could turn to obtain advice on improving their land, on environmental matters and on available grants? It is difficult for a farmer, who is a one-family man these days, to be able to plug into all the different rules and regulations to gain proper advice and grant assistance without a one-stop shop.
Mr. Clappison: I note what the hon. Lady says. In context, the important issue is that advice has been made widely available to farmers. There is clear evidence, to which the hon. Lady adverted, that the process has been successful. The number of incidents has been falling. There is an improving picture of pollution from the sources that we are discussing. The total number of substantiated pollution incidents reported in 1995 reflected a fall of 8 per cent. Within that total, the number of incidents attributable to agricultural sources fell by 18 per cent. The number of agricultural incidents was the lowest since the formation of the NRA in 1989. Moreover, the number of major agricultural incidents--that is the highest category showing a serious effect, such as substantial fish kill--fell from 239 in 1989 to only 32 in 1995.
That is a pleasing development that reflects the efforts that the NRA and now the agency have been making in visiting farmers and undertaking anti-pollution campaigns. I know, for example, that the agency has been working with farmers in the upper Tamar on how to manage farm waste to reduce the risk of pollution. I am sure as well that it is a good reflection on farmers in the area which the hon. Lady described.
The proportion of major pollution incidents attributable to agriculture has fallen from 36 per cent. in 1989 to 17 per cent. in 1995. There is still room for improvement, but considerable strides have been taken in the right direction. As a recent agency report on pollution incidents concluded:
I hope that this explanation puts into context the results of what seems to have been a failure to comply with requirements and guidance that, generally, have been successful in limiting pollution by slurry and other farm wastes. There is still room for improvement, but such incidents are, thankfully, very much the exception rather than the rule. I am sure that the hon. Lady and the House will join me in hoping that improvements will continue and that the number of such incidents will continue to fall.
I listened carefully to the wider points that the hon. Lady made about the costs and benefits implicit in the approach of the Environment Agency. She will know that the agency, which was the product of the Environment Act 1995, was widely welcomed and supported. I imagine that the hon. Lady herself would have supported the Environment Bill, which applied well-established principles, including that of best available techniques not entailing excessive cost, which has been successful and widely welcomed. Some measure of the success of that principle can be seen in the fact that it has been adopted implicitly in European directives covering this subject, and that our system of integrated pollution control has also served as a model for such directives.
On those issues, we are on the right lines, and I am sure that the hon. Lady will join me in hoping that the improvement in the reduction in the number of incidents of agricultural pollution will continue.
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Geoffrey Lofthouse):
As the Minister who will reply to the next debate is not present, the sitting is suspended until 1 pm.
Sir Roger Moate (Faversham):
Essentially, this is a debate about holes--millions of holes in our roads, causing delay and disruption to millions of motorists and costing the United Kingdom millions of pounds each year. It is about the digging up of our roads so that public utilities and cable companies can lay or renovate pipes or cables. According to one estimate, the resulting disruption costs £1 billion a year--and that does not include the cost to the frazzled nerves of road users, not to mention Members of Parliament.
There is ample evidence, however, that much of the dislocation is unnecessary and avoidable. Many of the holes in our roads would not be needed if Britain made fuller use of the trenchless technologies--the underground moling techniques--that are apparently used more extensively abroad. Much of the technology is, in fact, British. Why are we so slow to use it, and to insist that roads are not dug up when moling would often be quicker, cheaper and better? Should we not always be obliged to ensure that this new technology is used wherever it might be seen to be better, and to ensure that repairs and installations are tested against its availability?
Nationally, we face a massive programme of repairs to underground services. Let me shamelessly borrow a quotation from a paper prepared by Mr. Nick Taylor of Aegis Survey Consultants Ltd., which does underground survey work. He quotes Rome's water commissioner as saying:
The purpose of today's debate is to try to ensure that, in future, all works are carried out, wherever it is practicable and sensible, with the use of no-dig techniques. I understand that, in 1993, of all utility installation work--I am told that it involves about 8,000 holes a day--only 5 per cent. was carried out with the use of trenchless construction methods.
There is a large and growing industry described as the no-dig industry. I have had contact with that industry through a company in my constituency called Powermole International. Some time ago, it put me in touch with the International Society for Trenchless Technology. The society has an impressive magazine called No-Dig International. There are international conferences and exhibitions, attended by a surprisingly large number of national and international companies specialising in work of this kind.
I have received information from such companies. It is remarkably interesting to learn about the fast-developing range of new technologies that are available for installing, repairing, replacing and mapping underground services; yet people still seem reluctant to use those techniques wherever possible in the United Kingdom. According to
the feedback that I receive, there is still a resistance to the use of trenchless technologies, or to ensuring that work is tested against their availabilities.
According to a letter from an international company that operates in Europe, the middle east and Africa,
I saw another demonstration in Sittingbourne high street in my constituency. A gas main was replaced in a day; had the work been done by conventional means, as is so often the case, the road would have been up for a week. The same company ran two large steel tubes under the fearfully busy A249, ramming 17 metres of tubing under the road at a rate of five minutes per metre. It was done in about 85 minutes, while the massive amount of traffic that was passing overhead continued undisturbed. Conventional means would have cost five times as much, and would have brought chaos to the road.
That company is selling its products abroad, but, although they are clearly world-class products, it seems much harder for it to achieve success here in the United Kingdom. I have no doubt that other national and international companies all over Britain will tell the same story. I hope that the House will not mind my referring to the company in my constituency; I do so to illustrate the importance of the whole industry, and the need for our country to harness these resources. No doubt other hon. Members could tell the same story about companies in their constituencies.
As my hon. Friend the Minister will know, the Transport Research Laboratory commissioned a study, completed in 1993, of the potential for reducing costs resulting from the installation of utility services under our roads. The report identified the direct, indirect and social costs, and clearly spelled out the importance of reducing disruption and dislocation. I believe that it provided the figure of about £1 billion in disruption costs. I understand that it also mentioned the importance of using trenchless technology at the planning and design stages of work.
What steps have been taken since? The study suggested that the Department of Transport should ensure that highway authorities throughout the United Kingdom examined, on every occasion, the possibility of using trenchless technology.
No one is suggesting that trenchless technology is a panacea. There will be many occasions when it will not be appropriate and holes will have to be dug--it does not magically do away with the need to dig holes. It could substantially reduce disruption, however, if the utilities and highway authorities insisted on no-dig techniques where possible.
I do not think that that would require a change of legislation--indeed, I gather that I am not allowed even to call for a change of legislation in an Adjournment debate--but perhaps the Department of Transport could toughen its codes of conduct and guidelines and demand that any contractor carries out all works in a non-disruptive fashion. Perhaps a legal obligation could be placed on those who dig the road to ensure that they minimise disruption and check the best techniques.
Perhaps my hon. Friend the Minister should commission a further study into progress in reducing unnecessary road digging and into the extension of the use of no-dig techniques. There are many advantages in avoiding extensive, traditional trenching, such as the prevention of immense damage to trees and plants and the cutting of roots.
Holes and trenches create road safety hazards, and, when access to premises is disrupted, interfere with commerce and industry. Vehicles that are needlessly stuck in large traffic jams cause environmental pollution. Trenchless methods do not create large quantities of spoil and backfill, so they are environmentally friendly and cleaner, and cause less dirt, dust and pollution.
Trenchless methods are perceived as more expensive. I have seen no evidence to support that and I doubt that it is true, particularly when disruption costs are taken into account. I wonder whether there is an inertia factor, because many contractors or subcontractors would prefer to use their existing equipment and labour force, but how sad it would be if Britain were to continue to operate an old-fashioned and inefficient method when the alternatives are readily available and could be used rapidly, to the great benefit of road users and the economy.
The New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 was designed to reduce unnecessary digging and to create a register. I should be grateful if the Minister would say whether the register is in operation, and, if it is, whether it is working well. If it is not, when will it be, and what do we hope it will achieve? As a result of the Act, has there been a reduction in unnecessary and repetitive road digging by the public utilities? If there has been, it is not obvious to me as a road user.
"This has been achieved by a combination of publicity, pollution prevention, regulations and farm waste grants. It clearly demonstrates that the risk of pollution can be significantly reduced if a sufficient co-ordinated approach is taken."
It should be clear from my explanation of the incident and from the background of our general policy that the Environment Agency should be congratulated on its prompt reaction, which averted some of the worst consequences of a major incident. The hon. Lady accepted
that the agency had performed well. The incident is now over, in the sense that oxygen levels in the river have returned to normal, but the agency will consider whether further action is needed to assist the recovery of fish populations.
12.52 pm
"these numerous and extensive works have a natural tendency to fall into decay and must be attended to before they call for large appropriations".
That was said in AD 97, but I expect the same to be true in 1997. Like, I suspect, many other hon. Members, I have encountered an increasing number of problems as a result of necessary repairs to leaking underground water pipes. The problem is acute: it is the same problem as existed in ancient Rome, but it is on an even larger scale now.
"the present levels of No Dig activities throughout these territories are currently strongest in the Middle East where micro tunnelling is an established means of installing pipelines under many of the cities and the highways . . . although there are several contractors in the United Kingdom who are using micro tunnelling, only about 2 per cent. of the current installation market uses such techniques. The reasons for this are probably largely down to ignorance or indifference."
Let me illustrate the point from my own experience. The company that I mentioned earlier--Powermole International in Sittingbourne--produces compressed air-powered tunnel borers, ranging from very small to very large machines. I understand that the gas industry is one of the most extensive users of the technology. I shall not venture a criticism of that industry, but even it needed a gentle nudge from the local Member of Parliament to persuade it to tunnel under the busy A2 near Faversham when installing a major new pipeline across the countryside. Had it gone ahead and dug a trench across that busy road, my constituents would have suffered serious traffic hold-ups for a long time. Full marks to the gas company: it did the right thing and tunnelled--but that should have been automatic. The nudge should not have been necessary.
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