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1.15 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Ms Glenda Jackson): I congratulate the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Mr. Prior). He had no need to apologise for or regret what he regarded as the dullness of the title of his debate. The issue that he has raised is of great importance. I am sure that all hon. Members have seen and been appalled by the consequences of ad hoc, unco-ordinated developments and decisions in the countryside.
The Government value the countryside highly as an environment in which people live and work and as one of this country's great assets. We are fully committed to the integration of environmental and transport issues at national and international level and at local level, as is well demonstrated in the topic that we are debating today. This is why we now have a Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, why we are developing an integrated transport policy, and why policy responsibilities for land use and transport planning have been brought together.
We have placed particular emphasis on the development of an integrated approach to transport and land use planning, traffic management and streetscape design in town and country. We have said that consideration of rural issues will permeate all our thinking as our integrated transport policy is brought together. That is why, among other measures, we are giving £50 million a year to rural transport, which will enable a substantial expansion in subsidised bus services in rural areas.
The Government believe that most of the day-to-day decisions that impact on the quality of the rural landscape must be taken locally in consultation with those affected. However, those decisions should be taken in the context of coherent policies and against a background of good practice.
We are actively encouraging good design in the countryside that takes account of the special character of a local area. Revised planning policy guidance note 7 reinforces that emphasis on maintaining and enhancing local distinctiveness. It promotes countryside design summaries and village design statements. Produced with the co-operation of local communities, they can bring greater confidence and coherence to design in a local area, and reinforce a high quality of design--a point that is clearly of particular importance to the hon. Member for North Norfolk.
On a practical level, the Department is a member of, and is actively supporting, the Countryside Commission's countryside traffic measures group--as is Norfolk county council. The group, which was launched last July, aims to take forward, in partnership with local authorities,
demonstration projects that will investigate the extent to which local traffic management and traffic calming schemes can be effective in meeting their traffic objectives, while being designed with sensitivity to the countryside environment in which they are set, as well as forming part of wider traffic and transport strategies for a rural area.
The village speed control project--in which the then Department of Transport collaborated with the Scottish Office, Welsh Office and County Surveyors Society--showed that gateway features are not effective in achieving sustained speed reductions unless accompanied by additional traffic calming measures within the village. This highlighted the tension between the objectives of achieving reductions in noise and air pollution--as well as road safety improvements--through reducing vehicle speeds, and the direct, visually intrusive, effects of proven speed-reducing measures. The CTMG will provide the opportunity to discuss rural traffic management issues more widely, to share experience and to disseminate good practice.
We are bringing to this the lessons learned from working with the English Historic Towns Forum on the development of more environmentally sensitive traffic management measures in historic town centres. In particular, this exercise demonstrated the value of an interdisciplinary approach from all the professions involved in finding acceptable solutions where aesthetic and traffic management considerations are in conflict, and also the importance of consultation with all interested parties and the implementation of solutions that have the support of local residents and businesses.
Through research based on demonstration projects planned by the CTMG, we will examine and make proposals on the detail of design approaches and guidance which meet wider needs of traffic movement and road safety, while respecting the diversity and local distinctiveness of the countryside. The hon. Gentleman will be interested to hear that the demonstration projects include one to develop low visual impact and low-cost, traffic calming techniques on the A149 between Hunstanton and Cromer in his constituency. Other projects will be implemented in Cumbria, Devon, Hampshire, Suffolk and Surrey.
The Countryside Commission is also undertaking research to investigate a broad range of factors and how road use impacts on them and to identify suitable criteria for determining appropriate traffic calming measures in rural areas. A separate research project will be reporting soon on possible new and more sensitive approaches to design of traffic signs--I trust the hon. Gentleman will welcome that--other street furniture and road layouts.
A basic premise of the CTMG research will be that traffic calming and traffic management design solutions have tended to be applied too systematically and inappropriately in the countryside--a point made by the hon. Gentleman. In addition, the Countryside Commission is developing ideas for reducing the intrusive nature of traffic in the countryside and maintaining the tranquillity of rural lanes as part of a more holistic approach to traffic management.
The results of all these studies are intended to produce researched recommendations on good design practice which will be made available to highway and traffic authorities generally. The hon. Gentleman raised in particular the issue of sign clutter. We agree that traffic signs should not be put up or left in place unless they are appropriate for safe and efficient traffic management.
We are currently updating and revising the traffic signs regulations so that traffic authorities can use sign designs developed for new traffic management purposes without having to get them specially authorised by the Department--for example, speed camera signs. We shall continue to remind local authorities that they have a statutory duty under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to have regard to local amenity in placing signs.
We have also reviewed the previous Government's proposals for further relaxations in the design and use of boundary signs. We have concluded that there is no safety or traffic management benefit in signing boundaries of shire district councils, and that we should not encourage a proliferation of unnecessary signs by adding district boundary signs to the traffic signs regulations. We recommend, whenever possible, that local authorities review and audit their signs as an on-going process to ensure that they are still relevant and necessary, and that they are clear, well maintained and achieving their intended purpose.
We published updated guidance last November on the principles of good sign design. Chapter 7 of the traffic signs manual includes examples of how to design signs effectively so that they are not larger than they need to be for the information they contain. It also points out that yellow backing boards can be useful in some circumstances, but that they can also be environmentally intrusive and may be devalued by over-use.
The point has often been made to the Department that 30 mph repeater signs through villages are visually intrusive. However, it remains true that drivers are unlikely to observe the speed limit unless it is clearly signed and reinforced by the general road environment. The village speed control project--to which I referred earlier--was set up specifically to address this problem. Repeater signs are, of course, not required if a system of street lighting is provided--but this in itself is a controversial issue.
Some lighting schemes can appear inappropriate in a rural village, but lighting may be needed to help pedestrians and cyclists to move about safely. Street lighting can also help to reduce crime, and the fear of crime, by improving personal security. We recognise that poorly designed and installed street lighting can be unsightly and can detract from the visual amenity of the area. Uncomfortable, distracting glare and wasteful light pollution can result, but good design practices can reduce or eliminate these undesired effects.
With this in mind, my Department and the Countryside Commission last year published "Lighting in the Countryside: towards good practice". We believe this guide will be a valuable tool in showing local planning authorities, professionals and members of the public the benefits of good practice in this area, and how to achieve it. I trust the hon. Gentleman will welcome that.
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