| OBJECTIVES AND PUBLIC SERVICE AGREEMENTS
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| (a) | We note that the Department appears to have given increased importance to roads from the position in the White Paper on Integrated Transport (paragraph 6).
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| (b) | Given the importance of the urban renaissance, and the danger that, in the absence of a specific objective, it will not be given the priority it deserves, the Department should add an urban policy objective to its 10 main objectives. It should also frame appropriate targets related to this objective, including an increase in the population of inner city areas (paragraph 8).
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| TARGETS
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| (c) | We are surprised that the White Paper should have endorsed English Welsh and Scottish Railway's targets for the growth of rail freight so readily, if they were considered over-ambitious. If rail is to play its full part in the movement of freight, the Government and the shadow Strategic Rail Authority must review and revitalise the policies designed to increase use of this mode. This review should include firmer guidance and extra funding for rail freight projects in local transport plans (paragraph 11).
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| (d) | It is most important that the prospects for rail freight are not damaged by the introduction of 44-tonne lorries. We therefore recommend that 44-tonne lorries be permitted for general use only after specific recommendations relating to the protection and strengthening of rail freight have been developed by of the shadow Strategic Rail Authority, and have been implemented (paragraph 13).
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| (e) | We are surprised that the Government, having endorsed the target for doubling cycle use between 1996 and 2002 in the White Paper and in last year's Annual Report, should now argue that the target had not been formally adopted. Its failure to take the measures necessary to achieve the target shows the Government's fundamental lack of commitment to cycling. We trust that the Government's remaining targets, of trebling cycle use by 2010, and quadrupling cycle use by 2012, will prove to be more durable. However, unless it takes the necessary steps to make cycling much safer, we fully expect that these targets will also be abandoned (paragraph 15).
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| (f) | more attention must be paid to the needs of pedestrians if people are to be persuaded to undertake more journeys on foot. The Department has not provided a satisfactory explanation for reversing its plan to adopt a national target for encouraging walking. We recommend that the Government reconsider the case for setting one (paragraph 17).
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| (g) | In the light of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution's evidence to us, officials' confidence that the 20% target will be met appears complacent (paragraph 20).
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| ACHIEVEMENTS
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| (h) | The Department has a raft of objectives which command widespread support. There has been progress this year, but we remain impatient with the pace of implementation (paragraph 21).
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| IMPLEMENTATION
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| (i) | We are pleased that the Government has acknowledged the need for increased resources to off-set higher tender prices in London. We recommend that tendering authorities outside the capital also be given extra money to maintain socially necessary bus services which are in danger of being withdrawn because of rising costs (paragraph 24).
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| (j) | We are not satisfied that the Government will get the best value for money by selling part of National Air Traffic Services before the new Air Traffic Control Centre is fully operational (paragraph 26).
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| (k) | We therefore repeat our recommendation that the Department give details of the work each firm performs, and the reason the work could not have been performed in-house, and indicate the cost range within which each contract falls. We would prefer that this information be provided in the Annual Report, but if this proves not to be possible, the Department should propose another way of putting it into the public domain (paragraph 27).
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