Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to reduce transport emissions in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Government is committed to going further, faster to tackle climate change, which is why we are developing a bold and ambitious Transport Decarbonisation Plan to achieve net zero emissions across all modes of transport. This will set out our plans for reducing emissions at local and national level. Tackling emissions at a local level will make an important contribution to the decarbonisation of transport.
In addition to national policies to reduce emissions, government has already provided funding support for measures to reduce emissions across transport locally, including for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, increasing active travel, and supporting low emission buses. Building on previous funding, the Department recently announced that Coventry is – alongside Oxford – one of two areas progressed to Phase 2 of the All Electric Bus Town or City Competition. Subject to a successful business case, Coventry could be awarded up to £50 million to replace its entire bus fleet with electric buses and the infrastructure needed to support them.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of anti-social behaviour incidents on public transport during the covid-19 outbreak in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England; and what steps his Department is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour on (i) buses and (ii) trains.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Government is committed to reducing crime, anti-social behaviour and the fear of crime wherever it occurs in the transport system. The transport industry, local authorities, the police and others are already investing in, and undertaking wide-ranging initiatives to improve the personal security of public transport passengers and staff and to keep our public transport systems as low crime environments.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much central Government funding has been spent on upgrading the cycling network in (a) Coventry and (b) the West Midlands in each of the last five years.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
A total of around £143 million has been invested in cycling and walking schemes in the West Midlands and £4 million in Coventry since the introduction of the Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) in 2016/17. This includes £22 million emergency active travel funding this year. Details of this investment, including a year by year breakdown to 2018/19, were published on 7th February alongside the first report to Parliament on progress made towards delivering the CWIS. Most of the investment benefits both cycling and walking, although some initiatives are focused more on one than on the other: further details are provided in the report.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase access to public transport for people with sight loss.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Through the Inclusive Transport Strategy, launched July 2018, we aim to give disabled people equal access to the transport network by 2030, with assistance where physical infrastructure remains a barrier.
The Government remains as committed to delivering inclusive transport for all passengers as we were before the COVID-19 pandemic. In November last year we published a report outlining the progress we have made in the two years since the Inclusive Transport Strategy was published. Further to this, we have recently launched a disability equality awareness training package. This is freely available for transport operators, and our expectation is that this will improve service for all disabled passengers, including people with sight loss.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of buses in regular operation are powered solely by renewable fuels.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The table below shows the percentage of buses used as Public Service Vehicles by fuel consumption type, by metropolitan area status and country in 2019/20.
Fuel Consumption Type | London | English metropolitan areas | English non-metropolitan areas | England | Scotland | Wales | Great Britain | England outside London |
Hydrogen | 0% | 1% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Electric (not hybrid) | 4% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 1% | 0% | 1% | 1% |
Diesel-Hybrid | 40% | 5% | 1% | 14% | 6% | 0% | 12% | 3% |
Methane/Biomethane | 0% | 0% | 2% | 1% | 0% | 0% | 1% | 2% |
Diesel | 56% | 94% | 96% | 84% | 94% | 100% | 85% | 95% |
Other (including Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO)) | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Source: DfT Annual Bus Statistics (BUS0609b)
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to improve provision for (a) cycling and (b) walking as alternative transport options in (i) Coventry North East constituency and (ii) Coventry.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Under the Active Travel Fund, the Department has made available around £17 million to Transport for the West Midlands (TfWM) this financial year for schemes to boost cycling and walking.
It is up to TfWM to determine in discussion with its seven constituent authorities where this funding is spent. The Spending Review last month confirmed that a further £257 million would be made available for cycling and walking schemes in England next financial year. The Department will make a further announcement in due course about how that funding will be split between different schemes and different regions of the country.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding has been allocated from the public purse to roads and highways in Coventry in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Coventry City Council is a constituent member of the West Midlands Combined Authority. Since 2010 most of their transport funding, including highways maintenance and integrated transport block funding, has been paid directly to the Combined Authority. The funding provided by the Department for Transport for local roads and highways in Coventry since 2010 is shown in the table below.
Coventry
£m | HMB | CF | Pot- hole | ITB | Major Project | LPPF | Winter | Budget 2018 | LSTF | Total |
10/11 |
|
|
|
|
|
| 0.217 |
|
| 0.217 |
11/12 |
|
|
|
|
|
| 0.488 |
|
| 0.488 |
12/13 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 0.470 | 0.470 |
13/14 |
|
|
|
|
| 1.863 | 0.362 |
| 1.699 | 3.924 |
14/15 |
|
| 0.436 |
|
| 3.782 |
|
| 1.328 | 5.546 |
15/16 |
| 2.750 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2.750 |
16/17* |
|
| 0.154 |
| 1.100 |
|
|
|
| 1.254 |
17/18* |
| 2.750 |
|
| 1.200 |
|
|
|
| 3.950 |
18/19 |
|
|
|
| 0.400 |
|
| 1.226 |
| 1.626 |
19/20 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20/21* |
| 5.000 |
|
| 18.100 |
|
|
|
| 23.100 |
Total | n/a** | 10.500 | 0.590 | n/a** | 20.800 | 5.645 | 1.067 | 1.226 | 3.497 | 43.325 |
Headings
HMB is Highways Maintenance Block (needs and incentive elements)
CF is Challenge Fund (a bid based fund for larger maintenance projects from 2015/16)
ITB is Integrated Transport Block
LPPF is Local Pinch Point Fund
NPIF is National Productivity Investment Fund
LSTF is Local Sustainable Transport Fund
* This includes £19.6 million funding to Coventry City Council for the A46 South Coventry Link Road Phase 1 (Stoneleigh Junction) which is physically in Warwickshire but Coventry get most of the benefits. The funding is allocated to Coventry and this scheme is being managed jointly with Warwickshire County Council.
** Funding paid directly to West Midlands Combined Authority.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of passenger rail journeys.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Government guidelines are currently that non-essential travel by public transport should be avoided. However, we are preparing for recovery by working closely with industry to consider products to accommodate more flexible commuting and on the production of business plans for the new financial year which will contain initiatives to stimulate recovery and growth in passenger numbers.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve road safety in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
In the United Kingdom, road safety at City and County level is the responsibility of the Local Authority.
At a national level, we are well underway with progressing the actions from the 2019 Road Safety Statement, undergoing a review of the Highway Code and in conjunction with the Home Office conducting a review of Roads Policing. These measures will help improve road safety across England, as well as Great Britain.
In June 2018 the Department announced £100 million of funding for the Top 50 most dangerous ‘A’ roads in England, to date £65 million of that fund has been allocated.
This project works closely with the Local Authorities and the Road Safety Foundation, providing tailored safety interventions specific to each road’s risk. This could be clearer signage, new cycle lanes and pathways, or even full-scale junction redesign.