56.
asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation if he will now give the date on which unilateral waiting regulations are to be introduced in certain streets in Wembley.
My right hon. Friend cannot name a date until he has considered any comments or objections to the draft regulations, which he is due to receive by the end of this month.
Can my hon. Friend say why this has taken so long? Has there not been ample time for the comments to have been received already?
There have been a number of applications for waiting restrictions throughout a great part of London, and these have been submitted to the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee with a view to there being a general revision of the regulations. We have now reached the point where the draft regulations have been prepared and circulated, and it is hoped that a decision can be taken in the very near future.
Has the hon. Gentleman any reason to believe that unilateral waiting regulations are unpopular where the Department seeks to introduce them? Do not they serve as useful a purpose as zebra crossings—if not a more useful purpose—in reducing road accidents?
Both unilateral waiting regulations and zebra crossings make a valuable contribution to the solution of the traffic problem.