4 Conclusion
50. This Report shows how our work fits into the
framework set by the Liaison Committee, and identifies those areas
where we feel our intervention has been most fruitful. But our
work does not fall neatly into an annual pattern; several inquiries
started last year still continue, and there are many issues to
which we expect to turn or return to in the future. Nor do we
simply conduct a series of discrete inquiries; our inquiries draw
from one another, and we consider our conclusions in the light
of our wider knowledge of transport policy and practice.
51. Our concerns change as transport policy evolves,
but we expect that we will be taking a close interest in how the
Department for Transport sets its priorities. While the Department's
consultations are typically limited to stakeholders, we invite
evidence from anyone interested in a particular inquiry. The details
of current inquiries and calls for evidence are posted on our
web site: www.parliament.uk/transcom. We value the evidence we
receive from members of the public, who are often far more reflective
about the need to make trade-offs between the advantages of different
methods of transport than the popular press appears to believe.
52. The 10 Year Plan for Transport has been superseded
by the recent Future of Transport White Paper. We do not intend
simply to accept that the objectives have been changed. As our
precursor Committee on Transport, Local Government and the Regions
maintained from the outset, there were serious flaws in the 10-year
plan, and its ambitions could not be sustained in reality. Nonetheless
that Committee concluded that "the 10 Year Plan is a crucial
step towards implementing the Government's integrated transport
policies".[26] We
will continue to refer back to it to identify the ways in which
policy is changing.
53. The Department's aim is "transport that
works for everyone". We believe we goad it towards that goal
in a number of ways. We attempt to ensure that past lessons are
not forgotten. We repeatedly examine those areas in which transport
is definitely not working for everyone, either because it is inaccessible,
or because it is unsafe, or simply because this is unavailable.
We encourage examination of longer-term problems, such as congestion,
and politically unpalatable solutions to such problems, such as
road pricing, where the Government is beginning to lead a national
debate. We look at whether the department and its agencies are
themselves functioning efficiently and effectively. But ultimately,
what we do is report to the House and to the public the collective
view of eleven relatively well informed Members of Parliament,
from across the House.
26 Eight Report from the Transport, Local Government
and the Regions Committee of Session 2002-03, HC 558-I, para 138 Back
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