§ 13. Sir H. Harrisonasked the Minister of Transport whether he will now give a definite date on which the relief road for Stowmarket will be started.
§ Mr. HayNo, Sir. The draft Order under the Highways Act has aroused considerable local opposition. We may therefore be obliged to make a substantial modification and in that case re-advertisement of the Order would be necessary. In any event, because of the pressure of other more urgent schemes, we have not been able to include this one in our present trunk road programme.
§ Sir H. HarrisonIs my hon. Friend aware that in this town, which is quite progressive, housing and industry are held up from a planning point of view until the line of this road is decided? Although he may say that there has been local opposition, there is great feeling that the delay is rather deliberate 1136 within his Ministry. Can my hon. Friend give me some assurance on that point?
§ Mr. HayI can certainly give my hon. Friend the assurance that there is no delay in the Ministry. But this is a typical example of the sort of problem which we are up against. Here we have no fewer than 40 objections. The scheme as at present designed provides for the very heavy demolition of property, and, in order to try to meet the difficulty, we are attempting to redesign the junction. I think that we should have the chance of doing that first.