§ 14. Mr. Awdryasked the Minister of Transport during what month and in what year she estimates that construction work will start on the M4 on the part which passes through the Chippenham constituency.
§ Mr. SwinglerI have nothing to add to the Answer I gave to the hon. Member on 8th March.—[Vol. 742, c. 1512.]
§ Mr. AwdryIs the hon. Gentleman aware that during weekends in the summer traffic conditions on the A4 in Calne and Chippenham are now utterly intolerable? Will he do something to accelerate 811 the construction of the new part of the M4?
§ Mr. SwinglerWe shall certainly consider any further measures of traffic control or management which are put up by the local authorities in this area, but it is inevitable that we follow the statutory processes in fixing the line of the M4. The hon. Gentleman will probably know that we issued more side road orders a month after I gave the previous Answer to him. We are required by statute to wait three months for objections, after which we have to negotiate with the objectors. Inevitably, it takes several months to deal with these objections before we can finally fix the line. I regret the situation in Wiltshire, and we shall try to do anything by temporary measures to alleviate it, if we can.