Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is providing support to local authorities to help them install electric vehicle charging points in council-owned garages.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Public sector organisations, as well as social housing providers and private landlords, can apply for the EV chargepoint grant. Grants of up to £350 are available for landlords towards the cost of purchasing and installing a chargepoint, with up to 200 grants a year available per applicant. Additional support is available to help install multiple chargepoints, for example in residential car parks, with grants of up to £30,000 available.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of National Express West Midlands performance on (a) fares and affordability (b) timetabling and regularity (c) access and (d) punctuality compared to other services in England via the Bus Open Data Service.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Department publishes Official Statistics on bus punctuality via GOV.UK.
The Bus Open Data Service is a repository of bus timetable, location and fares data made openly available for analysis and consumption via a variety of methods. Each operator is independently validated for their compliance to the specific standards for each data type.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential economic merits of the Birmingham Airport Connectivity project.
Answered by Wendy Morton
Although unable to discuss individual projects at this time, we remain committed to publishing the RNEP update, which has been delayed by the need to take account of the impacts of the pandemic and the Spending Review. We want to provide as much clarity and certainty as possible on rail enhancements and will set out our plans shortly.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2022 to Question 42060 on Motorways: Pollution Control, what assessment National Highways has made of the potential merits of reducing the speed limit to 60mph on the M5 between junctions 2 and 3.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Speed limits have been reduced from 70mph to 60mph between Junctions 1 and 2 of the M5, as well as a small distance south from Junction 2 to improve air quality. The analysis of the 60mph speed limits on traffic flows and speeds and air quality measurements are currently being evaluated by National Highways.
National Highways is not gathering information directly on fuel usage nor is it making an assessment of the noise changes as a result of 60mph speed limits.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 23 March 2022 to Question 142060, what assessment he has made of the success of policies to introduce 60mph speed limits on motorways and dual carriageways in reducing (a) fuel consumption and (b) air pollution; and what assessment he has made of the impact of lowering the speed limit on levels of noise pollution on motorways and dual carriageways adjacent to residential areas.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
Speed limits have been reduced from 70mph to 60mph between Junctions 1 and 2 of the M5, as well as a small distance south from Junction 2 to improve air quality. The analysis of the 60mph speed limits on traffic flows and speeds and air quality measurements are currently being evaluated by National Highways.
National Highways is not gathering information directly on fuel usage nor is it making an assessment of the noise changes as a result of 60mph speed limits.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many mature trees have been felled by National Highways and its predecessors in each year since 2010.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
National Highways does not have numbers of mature trees felled in management and maintenance or road improvement projects.
Trees on National Highways’ land may be felled for various reasons following specialist arboricultural advice, or for safety reasons to remove damaged, dead, diseased or dying trees that could pose a hazard to public safety.
In the construction of road projects, National Highways seeks to retain existing trees where possible to minimise landscape change and biodiversity impacts. Where this is not possible, changes are documented in the project’s environmental assessment.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps he has taken to mitigate the effects of (a) noise pollution, (b) light pollution and (c) air pollution from motorways adjacent to residential areas.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
National Highways is implementing a programme of measures around the country to mitigate air pollution at locations identified by Defra’s national Pollution Climate Mapping (PCM) model on the Strategic Road Network (SRN) as above the annual mean nitrogen dioxide (NO2) limit value. These measures include: local traffic management, 60mph speed limits to reduce emissions compared to vehicles travelling at the national speed limit on motorways and dual carriageways, working with local authorities (investing £12.5m with authorities in Leeds, Coventry, Kent, Nottingham, Sheffield and Bristol) to accelerate the uptake of zero tailpipe emission vans.
National Highways has also undertaken an extensive programme of air quality research and continues to assess new and initiative technologies and measures that will support their work to reduce NO2 levels on the SRN.
National Highways has an obligation to minimise the environmental impact of the SRN. Consequently, it has had a long-standing programme of work to review the cost effectiveness of its lighting stock, removing cost-ineffective lights and to minimise the obtrusive light emitted by new or replacement road lighting schemes. National Highways requires its designers to use national and international standards, supported by industry best practice guidance.
To address noise pollution on the SRN and affected residential areas, National Highways builds measures into the newer parts of its network to control noise and install noise mitigation measures as standard on its road schemes. National Highways implements a variety of measures to reduce noise in its new schemes or existing roads, including changing to low-noise road surfaces, implementing noise barriers and insulating houses to reduce the noise that people are exposed to. Noise mitigation is provided during routine maintenance, as part of major schemes, and through standalone noise mitigation projects funded from National Highways Designated Funds Programme.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department plans to include the Birmingham Airport Connectivity scheme in the upcoming Integrated Rail Plan.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department will soon publish its Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) which will look at how best to deliver major rail investments in the North and Midlands, so that the benefits of these investments are delivered to passengers and communities more quickly. The Birmingham Airport Connectivity project is part of the Midlands Engine Rail proposals and it will be appropriate to consider the case for this scheme when the Integrated Rail Plan concludes.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to roll out flexible ticketing across the Midlands to encourage passengers to use public transport.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department is rolling out flexible ticketing and plans to go further. We have already introduced flexible season tickets on rail across England this year. As set out in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail White Paper, we intend to introduce contactless pay-as-you-go ticketing on rail on urban and commuter networks across the country.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of building the Midlands Rail Hub for the region's economy.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Network Rail prepared a Strategic Outline Business Case for the Midlands Rail Hub scheme in 2019. It showed that this investment would deliver significant benefits to Birmingham and the Midlands.
Network Rail, working with Midlands Connect is progressing an Outline Business Case and I expect to the receive the Outline Business Case in Autumn 2022.