Clause 16 - The network management duty
Traffic Management Bill
9:45 am
Mr Tony McNulty (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Harrow East, Labour)
In the context of better flows, network management and the relief of congestion, experts are catching up with ordinary people and starting to understand that signage, especially early signage, is important. I hope that road signage, among other things, will be included following discussions with local authorities and other stakeholders—I hope that hon. Members will forgive me for using that word, but I cannot think of a better one, so it will have to do for now.
I assure hon. Members that the network management duty will have environmental and safety issues at its core. At the Department for Transport level, key Government public service agreements are all about road safety and congestion, with all that those imply in terms of local duties. Local transport plans and regional transport strategies are drawn up in the context of road safety and environmental issues. The sustainable development framework, which will overarch the entire planning system when the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill becomes law, will be at the root of regional spatial strategies, within which regional transport strategies will have to be formulated.
The issue of undue specificity is therefore very real, and I urge hon. Members not to fall into the trap of feeling comfortable about amending the Bill in a way that would ultimately limit the duty. It is far better to have a comprehensive duty that is codified in guidance. As I said, we have started consulting—I almost said negotiating with—local authority and other organisations that have an interest in precisely defining the duty.