§ 42. Mr. Ernest Daviesasked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation if he will make a statement on the proposed road building programme which is to follow the conclusion of the present programme due to end 1958–59.
§ Mr. WatkinsonI have nothing to add to previous statements.
§ Mr. DaviesWhen will the Minister announce the next four-year road programme? Does he not appreciate that there is a considerable time lag between the authorisation of schemes and their execution? Has he not informed the House several times that several years elapse from the time planning starts? Is he aware that until the programme is determined it will be impossible to go ahead with planning? Can the right hon. Gentleman give any indication of when he will announce his programme?
§ Mr. WatkinsonI have said a great many times what the main priorities are, and I am sure that the hon. Member knows that very well. Those priorities are certainly ones which will carry on far longer than the present road programme. How they are to be fitted in with more minor schemes is something which I am now considering.
§ Mr. DaviesCan the right hon. Gentleman say whether full planning is going ahead with the priorities to which he referred, where authorisation has not yet been given? Surely the point is that it is necessary to know what schemes will be authorised within the next four years so that preliminary planning can take place now.
§ Mr. WatkinsonI do not think that my Department has issued authorisation four years ahead in complete detail, and
1138 I have given an indication of our priorities in motor road schemes and in dealing with bottle-necks and other things.
§ 44. Sir F. Medlicottasked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation if his attention has been drawn to the way in which the Whitsun holiday has emphasised the inadequacy of the roads in Great Britain to carry the volume of traffic wishing to use such roads; and if he will make a radical and comprehensive new approach to this problem with a view to increasing and accelerating the whole of his plans for the improvement of our roads system.
§ Mr. WatkinsonAs I said in reply to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for Morecambe and Lonsdale (Sir I. Fraser) on 25th June, the road programme will be advanced as quickly as the country's economic and financial situation permits.
§ Sir F. MedlicottIs my right hon. Friend aware that it is not only the pleasure motorist who is affected, although he is important? Is he aware that the congested state of our roads causes delays in the distribution of industrial goods and services which must be a factor in the cost of distribution and, therefore, in the cost of living, and that expenditure on these roads would be really an economy in the long run?
§ Mr. WatkinsonI quite agree. That is why at the top of the priority list are an initial number of trunk roads of great benefit to commercial traffic.
§ Dame Irene WardAnd the Tyne Tunnel.
§ Mr. BottomleyIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that, following the Whitsun holiday, the A.A. report showed that the most congested road was that passing through the Medway towns, where sometimes there were queues five miles long and delays of many hours? Does not that emphasise the need to speed up work on this road?
§ Mr. WatkinsonThe Medway by-pass is among my priorities.