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House-Builders Federation
Mr. Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list the meetings held between Ministers in his Department and the House-Builders Federation in the last six months and the dates of those meetings. [52266]
Mr. Raynsford: I met representatives of the House-Builders Federation on 23 February and addressed a luncheon at their annual general meeting on 7 April.
Wind Farms
Mr. Nigel Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what representations he has received regarding the proximity of wind turbines to bridleways and other public rights of way and their impact on equine welfare. [52097]
Mr. Raynsford: One, from the British Horse Society.
Mr. Nigel Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will assess the advantages and disadvantages of amending
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PPG 22 to introduce a minimum required distance between wind farms and bridleways and other public rights of way. [52098]
Mr. Raynsford:
Planning Policy Guidance notes are not intended to be prescriptive. We have no evidence that the existing guidance is not robust enough in this area. Planning Policy Guidance note 7, 'The Countryside--Environmental Quality and Economic and Social Development', already alerts local planning authorities to take into account the impact of proposed developments on public rights of way when deciding planning applications. Experience indicates that properly designed and maintained wind turbines are a safe technology.
Mr. Ottaway:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what contingency plans he has to finance London Underground in the event that his public/private partnership plans are not in place by 2000-01. [52175]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
London Transport is developing plans to award one, two or three infrastructure contracts to finance, maintain and modernise the Underground's infrastructure by April 2000. If it appears that this timetable will not be achieved, the Government will consider with LT what interim funding arrangements may be necessary.
Mr. Fearn:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what estimate he has made of the number of services interchanging at London coach terminals for passengers in transit to locations outside London. [52750]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
Coach services interchange at several locations in London including Victoria Coach Station, Bulleid Way, Heathrow Airport, King's Cross, and Russell Square. The Government do not compile information about these services. However, I understand that, according to recent sample surveys, around 30 per cent. of passengers departing from Victoria Coach Station were estimated to have transferred from other coach services in and around the station.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what discussions he held with the Secretary of State for Health over hospital transport services prior to the publication of the Integrated Transport White Paper. [52317]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
Ministers and officials in both Departments have been working closely on issues relating to hospital transport services prior to the publication of the Integrated Transport White Paper, and will continue to do so.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what assessment he made of the advantages of including hospital transport services within the scope of the Integrated Transport White Paper. [52318]
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Ms Glenda Jackson:
Hospital transport services are included in the Integrated White Paper as part of a wider initiative to encourage employers to adopt green transport plans in an effort to change travel habits of employees. Hospitals have a vital role to play in sending the right messages to their communities by acting responsibly on health issues. We are, therefore, strongly encouraging health facilities to produce green transport plans.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what representations he has received about pollution, traffic congestion and consequent environmental damage arising from traffic on the A3 at Hindhead. [52319]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
We have receive a considerable number of representations in response to the Roads Review consultation about pollution, traffic congestion and environmental damage arising from traffic on the A3 at Hindhead. In addition, over the last twelve months the Highways Agency has received a number of representations relating to traffic congestion in this location.
Mrs. Anne Campbell:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) what was the cost of removing (a) pesticides, (b) nitrates and (c) phosphates from water supplies to make them potable, in (i) 1994-95, (ii) 1995-96, (iii) 1996-97 and (iv) 1997-98; [52546]
Mr. Meacher:
The costs in England and Wales of removing pesticides and nitrates from drinking water for 1994-95, 1995-96 and 1996-97 are listed. This information is derived from companies' July returns and published annually by Ofwat on CD-ROM, copies of which are in the Library of the House. Information for 1997-98 is not yet available. There is not normally a requirement to remove phosphates from drinking water supplies from (a) point sources and (b) diffuse sources; indeed in some cases phosphates are added to reduce plumbo-solvency.
(2) what was the cost of removing from water supplies phosphate derived from (a) point sources and (b) diffuse sources to make them potable, in (i) 1994-95, (ii) 1995-96, (iii) 1996-97 and (iv) 1997-98. [52547]
| Year | Nitrates | Pesticides |
|---|---|---|
| 1994-95 | 20 | 134 |
| 1995-96 | 9 | 155 |
| 1996-97 | 5 | 117 |
Source:
Table 37 July Returns
Ospar Commission
Mr. Baker:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the outcome of the Ospar meeting in Sintra, Portugal. [52713]
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Mr. Llew Smith:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on the outcome of the ministerial conference of the Ospar Commission in Portugal. [52752]
Mr. Meacher:
The first Ministerial meeting of the Ospar Commission for the protection of the marine environment of the North East Atlantic successfully reached agreement on a wide range of issues, thereby laying the foundation for an agreed international programme of work to implement the Ospar Convention.
We agreed a decision to end the potential opt-out for France and the United Kingdom on the dumping of radioactive waste. We adopted a new annexe to the Convention to authorise the Commission to adopt programmes and measures to control human activities that can have an adverse impact on the marine environment, with safeguards to ensure that there is no duplication or contradiction of work in other international forums, especially in respect of the management of fisheries. We adopted a binding decision to ban the dumping of all steel installations. This decision also bans the dumping of concrete installations and leaving both steel and concrete installations in place, but provides for possible derogations for sea-disposal of concrete installations and leaving in place the footings of steel installations over 10,000 tonnes. Consideration of the possibility of such derogations is subject to agreed assessment and international consultation procedures.
Looking ahead, we adopted long-term strategies to guide the work of the Commission on:
We also agreed, now that the decision on the disposal of disused offshore installations has been adopted, to develop a similar strategy, for adoption at next year's meeting of the Commission, on setting environmental goals for the offshore oil and gas industry and establishing improved management mechanisms to achieve them.
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Finally, we approved the work on the production of a Quality Status Report on the North East Atlantic by 2000 to provide a sound, scientific basis for identifying and prioritising future tasks and for revising the strategies at the next Ministerial meeting of the Commission in 2003.
hazardous substances (where the ultimate aim will be concentrations in the marine environment near background values for naturally occurring substances and close to zero for man-made synthetic substances, and the goal for 2020 will be to make every endeavour to move towards the target of cessation of discharges, emissions and losses by the date);
radioactive substances (where the ultimate aim will be concentrations in the marine environment near background values for naturally occurring substances and close to zero for artificial radioactive substances; in achieving this objective, we shall take into account legitimate uses of the sea, technical feasibility and radiological impacts to man and biota; the goal for 2020 will be the reduction of discharges, emissions and losses to levels where the additional concentrations in the marine environment above historic levels, resulting from such discharges, emissions and losses, are close to zero);
eutrophication (where the aim is to eliminate eutrophication where it occurs in the North East Atlantic and to prevent further occurrences); and
the protection of ecosystems and biological diversity (where the first aim will be the entry into force of the new Annexe, and the identification of human activities that need to be addressed under it, and the preparation of programmes and measures to do so, along with promoting the establishment of a network of marine protected areas).
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