Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding has been allocated from the On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme guidance to Central Bedfordshire Council.
Answered by Grant Shapps
The On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) is a demand-led funding scheme which assists local authorities with the cost of installing chargepoints in residential streets. The funding available is for 75% of the capital costs of procuring and installing the chargepoint and an associated dedicated parking bay, and is administered by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV). In October 2019, I wrote to all local authorities encouraging them to send their strategies for infrastructure deployment and to take advantage of ORCS funding. Last month we announced that Government funding will be doubled to £10 million for the installation of chargepoints on residential streets next year. This could support as many as 3,600 chargepoints for those that do not have off-street parking.
To date, no applications have been made for funding through ORCS from Central Bedfordshire Council. Luton Borough Council, which is in Bedfordshire, has applied for funding under the scheme and has been awarded £23,336 to support the installation of nine chargepoints.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much per capita funding has been allocated from the public purse to cycling in each local authority in each of the last three years.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Department estimates that over the three years from 2016/17 to 2018/19, a total of around £1.2 billion of funding has been invested in cycling and walking projects in England outside London. This equates to approximately £8.50 per capita per annum, but the amount varies considerably between individual local authorities. The Department will be publishing detailed information on the funding that has been provided from the public purse, including estimates of funding allocations to individual authorities, alongside its report to Parliament later this year on the delivery of the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy.
Funding for cycling and walking comes from a wide variety of ring-fenced and non-ringfenced sources making it difficult to summarise the information concisely for each local authority. Ring-fenced funds that were available to some or all local authorities over the three years in question include the Bikeability programme, the Access Fund, the Cycle Ambition Cities fund, the Cycle Safety Fund, Cycle Rail grants, and Highways England Designated Funds. Non-ringfenced funds that were available to some or all local authorities over the same period, and of which of a proportion was used to support cycling and walking, include the Local Growth Fund, the Integrated Transport Block, the Highways Maintenance Fund, the National Air Quality Plan, the National Productivity Investment Fund, the Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund, and other cross-Government infrastructure funds, including the Transforming Cities Fund and Housing Infrastructure Fund.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much per capita funding has been allocated from the public purse to cycling in Central Bedfordshire in each of the last three years.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Department estimates that on average around £3 to £4 per capita has been allocated from the public purse to cycling and walking in Central Bedfordshire in each of the last three financial years. This estimate is based on both ring-fenced funding streams (including grants from the Sustainable Transport Transition Fund, Access Fund, and Small Business Research Initiative, as well as Bikeability training in schools in Central Bedfordshire), and non-ringfenced funding streams (including the Integrated Transport Block and Maintenance Block) of which a certain percentage is spent on measures which benefit cyclists and pedestrians. Local authorities are also able to use other local funds for cycling and walking projects, making it difficult to give a more precise estimate.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding his Department plans to make available for constructing schemes in local cycling and walking infrastructure plans.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs) are used by Local Authorities to identify and prioritise investment for cycling and walking schemes from local funds and relevant national funding streams, such as the Highways Maintenance Fund, Integrated Transport Block, Transforming Cities Fund, Future High Streets Fund, and the Housing Infrastructure Fund.
Decisions on further future funding for cycling and walking will be made in the context of the forthcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether market towns will have equal access to the Transforming Cities Fund alongside metropolitan areas; how he plans to achieve equity on access to the Transforming Cities Fund throughout the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
While the Transforming Cities Fund is aimed at transforming intra-city connectivity and driving productivity in city regions across England, the Government expects that where market towns form part of these city regions, they will also benefit from the improved connections between urban centres and their commuter areas. To ensure that investments are truly transformational across their whole area, the Department will work closely with city regions that have been shortlisted to receive a share of the Fund, to co-develop innovative public and sustainable transport packages.
Alongside this, the £675m Future High Streets Fund will support and fund local areas’ plans to renew and reshape their high streets and town centres in a way that improves experience, drives growth and ensures future sustainability. This fund is open to all places, with no minimum population restrictions.
Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
What steps he is taking to ensure the compliance of foreign-registered vehicles with UK laws and regulations.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
UK road traffic legislation applies to everyone who use our roads irrespective of where the vehicle is registered.
It is for the Police to decide what action to take against foreign drivers detected committing criminal traffic offences. This may include impounding.
For traffic offences subject to civil enforcement, persistent evaders found in contravention may have their vehicles immobilised or removed. Some local authorities use international debt recovery agents to recover payment.