§ 47. Mr. Haymanasked the Minister of Transport what steps he proposes to take to deal with the growing congestion on the roads in the south-west of England.
§ Mr. HayWe authorised works in Devon and Cornwall in 1959–60 involving Government expenditure of over £1 million; and in the present year the figure will be about £1½ million.
§ Mr. HaymanIs the Parliamentary Secretary aware that the highway authorities in the South-West are still very concerned about the inadequacy of trunk roads and classified roads? Will he take that into consideration when making the next allocations?
§ Mr. HayThose highway authorities are not unique. Practically every highway authority would like to do more, and so would we, but we have to limit what we can do because of money and other considerations. We certainly get on as best we can.
§ Sir L. Ungoed-ThomasIs the position about money for this development being revised, in view of the statement which the Minister of Transport made, that these roads pay for themselves in eight years?
§ Mr. HayWe always believed, and are pretty confident, that the motorways would prove to be a great economic benefit to the nation. That is one of Dile considerations we had in mind in allocating money for the road programme. The progressive increase in the total for the road programme is another example of how our minds are working on this matter.