Clause 31 - Interpretation of Part 2
Traffic Management Bill
4:30 pm
Mr Tony McNulty (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Harrow East, Labour)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I do not know whether he is referring to a club in the north-west, but I was going more appropriately to cite one in Edinburgh; appropriate not only because the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross moved the amendment, but because of the right hon. Member who happens to be the MP for Edinburgh, Central. We are supporting a car plus car club advisory service in Edinburgh with a £60,000 per annum grant. Given that those powers exist in the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, it is for local authorities, in the context of devolution mentioned by the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, to determine whether they want to designate parking bays in such a fashion and whether they want—through their local transport plan submissions—to facilitate such schemes on the roads, through parking or otherwise. As I say, I have sympathy with the schemes but it is not for central Government to impose on local government such powers, not least when they already exist, should the local authority want to use them. In the spirit of fully supporting the sentiment of the amendments, but not their position, whether that is cheeky or otherwise, I ask the hon. Gentleman to withdraw the amendment.