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10 Dec 2009 : Column 539W—continued
Transport
Bridges: Workington
Mark Hunter: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what plans there are to build a bailey bridge capable of taking wheeled vehicles across the River Derwent in Workington, Cumbria. [304488]
Mr. Khan: Following the recent floods in Cumbria an immediate priority in Workington is to improve transport links for communities on either side of the River Derwent, which have been significantly curtailed.
The Government are working closely with Cumbria county council on re-establishing those transport links. An additional rail station has been built at North Workington to allow a shuttle rail service to operate. The Army have also built a temporary footbridge, which opened on 7 December. These facilities are being supported with Government funding.
Cumbria county council are considering what measures would be appropriate to restore road vehicle links across the River Derwent at Workington. The Department for Transport is funding project management support to assist the authority with their infrastructure recovery planning. When Cumbria county council decides on how to restore road vehicle links, they will be able to include the costs in their claim to the Department for emergency capital highway maintenance funding.
Bus Services: Finance
Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what bids for funding for new and enhanced bus services for local authorities and their partners he has received under the Kickstart Bus Funding Competition announced in January 2009; and when he plans to announce the successful schemes to be funded. [304274]
Mr. Khan: The Department for Transport received 105 bids for funding, totalling £63 million, from local authorities across England. An announcement will be made in due course.
Bus Services: Lincolnshire
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much his Department has paid in grants to North East Lincolnshire local authority to provide free bus travel for pensioners in the last 12 months. [304428]
Mr. Khan: In the last 12 months, The Department for Transport has made payments totalling £614,039 in respect of concessionary travel special grant to North East Lincolnshire. The special grant provides funding solely to cover the extra costs that followed from the improvement to the statutory concession to all-England travel in April 2008. The Department for Communities and Local Government continues to provide the bulk of concessionary travel funding to local authorities through Formula Grant.
Crossrail Line
Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many lorry movements carrying waste from tunnelling as part of the Crossrail project he estimates will take place in each month in 2012. [304287]
Mr. Khan: It is estimated that there will be around 60 lorry movements carrying waste from tunnelling as part of the Crossrail project per day during 2012. The need to reduce the number of such movements during the periods of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is recognised and is being actively considered by Crossrail Ltd. in consultation with the Olympic Delivery Authority, although the precise details will not be known until nearer the time.
85 per cent. of the excavated material from the tunnel drives will be removed by rail and boat, removing an estimated 500,000 lorry movements from the streets of London during the life of the project.
Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport by what means (a) contaminated tunnel waste, (b) non-contaminated tunnel waste and (c) waste of indeterminate quality from the Crossrail project will be disposed of. [304288]
Mr. Khan: Virtually all of the 7.3 million m(3 )of excavated material is expected to be clean and non-contaminated and can be reused elsewhere. A significant proportion of this material will be transported to Wallasea Island in Essex to enhance a nature reserve for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). This will be one of the largest new wetland nature reserves in Europe for some 50 years. Other sites being considered for this material include South East of England Development Agency (SEEDA) regeneration sites in Kent.
If any contaminated material or waste of indeterminate quality is found it will be transported to a specialist treatment facility.
Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what requirements he has identified for the need to stockpile waste during the construction phase of the Crossrail project. [304289]
Mr. Khan: It is anticipated that all categories of excavated material will be transported straight to its intended destination without the need for stockpiling. However, each construction site will have limited stockpiling capacity in case of unforeseen incidents on the rail, water or road networks.
Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what assessment he has made of the (a) carbon footprint and (b) environmental sustainability of (i) the construction of Crossrail and (ii) the completed scheme; and what benchmarking exercises his Department has carried out in this respect. [304290]
Mr. Khan: The carbon footprint and environmental impacts of Crossrail during both construction and operation were assessed and presented in the Crossrail Environmental Statement, which was published in February 2005.
As a sustainable transport project Crossrail forms part of the Mayor of London's 'London Plan' which was itself subject to a sustainability assessment.
In addition Crossrail has worked with the Building Research Establishment to develop a BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) for its sub-surface stations and is using that and the Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment and Award Scheme (CEEQUAL) to benchmark the environmental performance of its designs.
Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what preparations have been made to reduce the effect of lorry movements associated with Crossrail construction during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. [304291]
Mr. Khan: Crossrail Ltd. and the Olympic Delivery Authority are working together to ensure that the Games proceed unhindered, and to ensure that the impact of Crossrail works is minimised during the Olympic/Paralympic Games periods.
The need to reduce the number of lorry movements during the periods of the Olympic and Paralympic Games is recognised and is being actively considered. The precise details will not be known until nearer the time.
Departmental Plants
Grant Shapps: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much has been spent by his Department on (a) cut flowers and (b) pot plants in each of the last three years. [306145]
Chris Mole: The information is not held in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
However, the Department for Transport spent £87,401 on pot plants and £3,419 on cut flowers in 2008-09. This excludes spend incurred at the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency as the information requested can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Spend on pot plants includes provision, maintenance and replacement of plants.
All expenditure was incurred in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.
Departmental Public Relations
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what payments the British Transport Police has made to (a) Grayling Political Strategy and (b) Politics International in the last 12 months; for what purpose; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the contracts under which such payments have been made. [305129]
Chris Mole: This is a matter for the British Transport Police who can be contacted at 25 Camden Road, London, NW1 9LN, e-mail:
parliament@btp.pnn.police.uk
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what payments Cycling England has made to Blue Rubicon in the last 12 months; for what purpose; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the contract under which such payments have been made. [305130]
Mr. Khan: Blue Rubicon has been contracted through the Central Office of Information (COI) to provide public relations services to Cycling England. The agency delivers a programme of activity targeting consumers and engaging stakeholders with the aim of getting more people cycling, more safely, more often. A key focus of Blue Rubicon's work is the promotion of Bikeability cycle training for children (supporting the Government's goal of training an additional 500,000 children by 2012).
In the 12 months from November 2008 to October 2009, £493,177 was paid to Blue Rubicon in connection with the provision of such services. A further £432,985 was spent on external expenses (such as the supply of Bikeability badges) associated with the Cycling England campaign and procured through Blue Rubicon. In total, £926,162 was spent over the 12 months. During this period, the contract was retendered and refocused. As a result, the total value of work for the seven months from April to October 2009 was just over £321,000.
Blue Rubicon's contract is with the COI who have released a copy of the terms and conditions of the contract and their brief for the work. These have been placed in the Libraries.
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what payments the Civil Aviation Authority has made to (a) Waterfront Public Affairs and (b) AS Biss/Mandate Communications in the last 12 months; for what purpose; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the contracts under which such payments have been made. [305131]
Paul Clark: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) informs us that they have paid Waterfront Public Affairs a net amount of £96,019.80 in the last 12 months. This was for providing a public affairs and public relations consultancy service to the CAA. No payments have been made to AS Biss/Mandate Communications in the last 12 months. A copy of the Waterfront Public Affairs contract will be made available in the Libraries of the House.
Departmental Rail Travel
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport with reference to the answer of 12 May 2009, Official Report, column 645W, on departmental rail travel, whether (a) his Department's travel policy and (b) the travel policy of his Department's agencies allows staff to make claims from the public purse for travel in first class rail carriages in circumstances on which there are no seats in standard class available. [305148]
Chris Mole: The travel policies of the central Department and of its agencies allow claims for first class travel in circumstances on which standard class seats are unavailable.
East Coast Railway Line: Rolling Stock
Norman Baker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what recent estimate he has made of the cost of refurbishing existing rolling stock on the East Coast Main Line to enable it to be used (a) up to and (b) beyond 2019. [301211]
Chris Mole:
In order to provide a comparison with the costs of the new Super Express Trains, which will operate on the East Coast Main Line from 2014, the Department for Transport has prepared an estimate of the costs of the alternative: of continuing to operate the existing intercity rolling stock beyond that time. This includes the period leading up to as well as the period beyond 2019. Release of this comparator information at this stage would diminish the Department's commercial position in negotiations with the preferred bidder, Agility Trains. We therefore remain convinced of the value for
money of replacing the old rolling stock with the new Super Express Train, especially in the context of an extensive electrification programme.
Road Salting and Gritting
Sarah Teather: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what guidance his Department has issued to local authorities on (a) contingency plans in the event of snow and (b) the stockpiling of road grit. [305562]
Mr. Khan: It is for each local authority to determine how best to set and deliver a winter service strategy for the highway network for which they are responsible. The Department for Transport has not issued formal guidance to local authorities on this, but endorses the UK Roads Liaison Group's (UKRLG) code of practice on highways maintenance management, "Well-maintained Highways", which includes guidance on winter service. The code is available free from:
Following the severe weather in February this year, the then Secretary of State commissioned the UK Roads Liaison Group to identify the lessons that should be learnt regarding highway authorities' preparedness for extreme weather events. I will respond to the UKRLG's report shortly.
Roads: Accidents
Sarah Teather: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what estimate he has made of the number of road traffic accidents caused by partial parking on kerbs where the kerb is higher than four inches in the last 12 months. [305297]
Paul Clark: The information requested is not collected.
Transport: Expenditure
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how much his Department spent per capita on transport (a) revenue and (b) capital schemes in (i) England, (ii) each Government region and (iii) the City of York Council area in each year since 1996-97. [304547]
Mr. Khan: The Department for Transport publishes estimates of its total expenditure on services per head by region and country in its annual report. These figures rest on a number of assumptions, for example about how total expenditure on strategic highways and rail should be attributed to different regions, and figures are not available below regional level. The report does not include the split between revenue and capital schemes.
However, a further analysis showing the breakdown between revenue and capital schemes per capita for the Department since its formation in May 2002 is provided in the following table:
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