VI. SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
54. Our principal conclusions and recommendations
are as follows:
(i) We expect Ministers
in the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions
to remain exceptionally vigilant to ensure that there is no further
delay in the opening of Westminster station on the Jubilee Line,
that the service on the Line remains reliable and that contingency
plans are thorough and thoroughly tested (paragraph 11).
(ii) It is vital for
the long-term development of river passenger services on the Thames
that the services during the Millennium year are a success. It
is in turn important that river passenger services are available
from the beginning of the year 2000 (paragraph 12).
(iii) We wish Greenwich
Council every success in its efforts to develop a park-and-sail
facility at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. If such a service cannot
be established for the beginning of the year 2000, we recommend
that the Government gives careful consideration to the development
of such a service in assessing plans for the use of and transport
to the Dome after the year 2000 (paragraph 15).
(iv) We recommend that
NMEC, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions,
Greenwich Council and the Metropolitan Police hold discussions
as a matter of urgency to determine methods of identifying bona
fide mini-cabs at the Dome. We recommend that, even at this
late stage, NMEC seek advice from other venues that have imposed
a car-free régime (paragraph 20).
(v) We recommend that
further consideration be given to the closing time for publicly
organised events during "Big Time" (the publicly-organised
events in London on New Year's Eve 1999) as a matter of urgency.
We expect to receive a report on the outcome of the consideration
in early December (paragraph 31).
(vi) Even before our
next Report, we are therefore asking NMEC for information on their
strategy to sell tickets in the North of England, in Scotland,
in Wales and in Northern Ireland and the response to that strategy
(paragraph 33).
(vii) We expect NMEC
to provide this Committee with provisional information on its
financial performance during the first three months of the year
2000 on a commercially confidential basis in the course of our
next inquiry on Millennium matters (paragraph 43).
(viii) We recommend that
the quality of detailed plans and timetables for the transformation
of the Dome to its new, publicly accessible incarnation should
be a specific criterion in the evaluation process in the competition
to determine the Dome's future use. We further recommend that,
once a preferred bidder has been selected, NMEC and the preferred
bidder discuss the possibility of the entire Millennium Experience
or a part of it continuing in some form in the first half of the
year 2001 to avoid an extended period without public access (paragraph
47).
(ix) We expect to examine
progress of the competition to determine the future use of the
Dome in our inquiry next year. We expect to receive a copy of
any report by Sir Thomas Legg, in confidence if necessary (paragraph
48).
(x) We recommend that
the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions instruct
London Underground Limited to signal its willingness to re-name
North Greenwich Underground station as part of a financial agreement
with the new owners of the Millennium Dome (paragraph 51).
(xi) We recommend that
the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Cabinet Office
commission a study of lessons of the Millennium Dome project relating
to the role of Government and public agencies in major events.
We further recommend that the Cabinet Office establish a Major
Events Unit drawing upon expertise associated with the Millennium
Experience (paragraph 52).
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