| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
23 Feb 2009 : Column 501W—continued
The expenditure figures are for maintenance on the strategic road network managed and maintained by the Highways Agency. This includes renewal of the road surface and repairs to structures, as well as routine maintenance such as gully clearing, white lining, cleaning and winter maintenance. Costs excluded are those associated with our PFI contracts and our traffic and incident management service. To provide the aggregate of this information by individual road/route would require a significant amount of additional analysis, and as such could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
Expenditure figures have been adjusted to account for spend relating to roads trunked or detrunked in the financial year.
Spend figures prior to 2000-01 are based on cash accounting; the later years are based on resource accounting.
Roads: Safety
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much funding his Department has provided for road safety schemes in (a) Eastbourne constituency and (b) East Sussex in 2008-09. [257082]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Department for Transport provided East Sussex county council with a specific road safety capital grant of £181,269 for 2008-09. It also provided £814,713 of resource funding on the basis of an assessment of road safety issues for the area based grant for East Sussex county council. The area based grant is paid to the local authority by the Department for Communities and Local Government.
In addition the Department for Transport has provided £4.504 million of capital funding in 2008-09 for integrated transport improvements, including for road safety. It is for East Sussex county council to decide how much of this to allocate to road safety related projects according to its local policies and priorities.
The distribution of all this funding between the Eastbourne constituency and the rest of the county council's area is a matter for the county council.
Roads: Snow and Ice
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent assessment he has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) security of the supply of salt and other road gritting agents. [255840]
Mr. Hoon [holding answer 10 February 2009]: The Department for Transport is working with the Cabinet Office, other Government Departments, the Local Government Association, individual local authorities and the Highways Agency to identify the current capacity of the main suppliers of road salt nationally and to work with those suppliers to enable salt supplies to get to those highway authorities with the most urgent needs.
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much the Highways Agency has spent on grit in each of the last 10 years. [256226]
Paul Clark: The Highways Agency does not use grit. The mineral used for the treatment of its network is road salt.
The Highways Agency's routine and winter service is undertaken by its service providers. The procurement of road salt used for the treatment of the network is a part of the lump-sum activity of these service providers. The specific amount spent on road salt is not discernable from the contracts with our service providers.
Salt usage for the strategic road network varies between 300,000-400,000 tonnes per annum and the current cost for road salt is approximately £25 per tonne.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions he has had with the (a) Highways Agency and (b) Salt Union on the distribution of salt to (i) Highways Agency depots and (ii) local authorities since 1 January 2009. [256618]
Paul Clark
[holding answer 12 February 2009]: The Government, Highways Agency, the Local Government Agency and individual local authorities have been working
closely together to help prioritise the distribution of new supplies of road salt both to the Highways Agency for the strategic road network and to local highway authorities for local roads. As a consequence of this, since the onset of the adverse weather conditions, the Department for Transport has been in regular contact with Salt Union on their delivery plans and priorities.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what guidance his Department has issued to the Highways Agency on minimum salt reserves; what level of salt stocks the Highways Agency held in each week since 1 January 2009; and if he will make a statement. [256620]
Paul Clark [holding answer 12 February 2009]: The Highways Agency requires its service providers to hold a contractual minimum salting capability of four to six days (depending on the contract). This is based on heavy salting conditions, typically snow conditions. This requirement has been eased in recent days to reflect the adverse weather conditions.
Given the recent severe weather and pressures on road salt supplies nationwide, the Secretary of State agreed that the Highways Agency should maintain an average salting capability for the strategic road network of at least three days based on heavy salting conditions.
The following table shows the stocks held in capability days for the last seven weeks.
| HA average salting capability (days) | |
Roads: York
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many (a) adults and (b) children died on the roads in York in each of the last 15 years. [257836]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The number of (a) adults and (b) children fatalities resulting from reported personal injury road accidents in the City of York each year since 1996 is given in the table:
| Number of fatalities | |||
| Adults | Children( 1) | Total | |
| (1) Children aged 0-15 | |||
Information is given only from year 1996 onwards due to the change in local authority boundaries. The City of York became a unitary authority in 1996.
Rolling Stock
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the number of kilometres travelled by an average rail carriage in each year since 1995. [258085]
Paul Clark: Information on the number of kilometres travelled by an average rail carriage is not held by the Department for Transport. Statistics on the number of kilometres travelled by rail are published by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) in the National Rail Trends Yearbook, which is available in the House Library, or from the ORR website:
Rolling Stock: Greater Manchester
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether relevant passenger transport executives will be involved in decisions regarding the redeployment of railway rolling stock released through Greater Manchester's spending on the Rochdale and Oldham Metrolink extension; and if he will make a statement. [256885]
Paul Clark: In accordance with the Northern Rail franchise agreement, consultations regarding the future redeployment of this rolling stock will be held with the relevant passenger transport executives (PTEs).
The following PTEs are co-signatories to the Northern franchise agreement:
West Yorkshire PTE
South Yorkshire PTE
Greater Manchester PTE
Tyne and Wear PTE
Merseytravel PTE.
Trains
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent assessment he has made of the safety of (a) the type of trains chosen to replace high speed trains and (b) Pendolino trains. [257954]
Paul Clark: Under the Railways (Interoperability) Regulations 2006 any new train to be operated on Great Britain's network must be authorised by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR). The authorisation involves confirmation that essential requirements, including safety, have been met.
Pendolino trains were subject to earlier interoperability regulations and authorised to be placed into service by the Office of Rail Regulation. The design chosen to replace high speed trains will also be subject to interoperability regulations.
Trains: Safety Measures
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what representations he has received on the weight of trains in relation to safety loads. [257955]
Paul Clark: All trains are designed to meet appropriate safety standards. The reduced weight of the new Super Express trains is being achieved through careful design and lightweight materials and will in no way compromise safety.
The Department for Transport intentionally set challenging targets to reverse the trend of increasing train weight and so deliver significant energy and performance benefits as well as reducing track damage.
TransPennine Express: Franchises
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of First TransPennine Express's performance in operating their franchise. [257989]
Paul Clark: First TransPennine Express has been a successful franchise to date, delivering all obligations contained within its franchise agreement that commenced on 1 February 2004. This includes:
management of the build and delivery into service of a fleet of 51 new diesel trains, together with construction and implementation of dedicated maintenance facilities including new depots in Manchester and York.
Completion of a £12.2 million expenditure plan delivering improvements and enhancement to the 30 stations for which they are responsible.
Improvements in train operating performance year on year, meeting public performance measure targets.
Introduction of additional routes and services, between Manchester airport and Blackpool and Scottish destinations.
Transport: Planning
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment his Department has made of the effects of planning delays on major transport infrastructure projects since 1997. [258156]
Paul Clark: The White Paper ‘Planning for a Sustainable Future’ published in May 2007, which took account of Sir Rod Eddington's advice to Government on the links between transport and the economy, set out the Government's assessment that the then planning system for nationally significant transport (and other) infrastructure was too slow and complicated. The impact assessment for the Planning Bill, now the Planning Act 2008, estimated net benefits worth some £23 million per annum for the aviation sector alone from the reformed system provided for by the Act.
Vehicle and Operator Services Agency
Ian Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will provide a breakdown of the figures in table A1.36 of the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency's Effectiveness Report 2007-08 to show how many drivers were (a) employed and (b) self-employed. [256973]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Vehicle and Operators Services Agency does not record encounters in such a way that would allow identification of how many drivers were employed or self-employed.
| Index | Home Page |