HC Deb 23 May 1969 vol 784 cc921-8

3.52 p.m.

Mr. John Lee (Reading)

I am grateful for this opportunity of raising the subject of traffic congestion in Reading. I do not pretend that it is necessarily the case that the position in Reading is so very much worse than in many other boroughs of comparable size in this country. Nevertheless, there are one or two peculiarities which give rise for concern and justify singling out for special attention in this matter.

The situation in Reading has been getting steadily worse over the last five years. The basic reason for this is paradoxically, not because the Government are not doing something, but because they are doing something very useful, namely, constructing the M4 Motorway. As the motorway extends from its two ends—either from South Wales in an eastwards or westwards from London to Maidenhead—so the amount of traffic that is enticed to go along that route grows steadily more extensive. That situation is bound to continue and bound to create worsening problems for the Borough of Reading until such time as the M4 actually passes south of the Borough. It is not anticipated—indeed, it is not scheduled—that it will be completed before 1971. In the meantime the citizens of Reading, who have enough internal local problems of traffic congestion with which to contend, have to live with a situation over which neither they nor their local authority have very much control.

This at the moment is the situation in which—I have the figures of traffic control—in a 24-hour traffic control period the percentage of heavy commercial vehicles is 30 per cent. of the total volume, and the total volume of vehicles is about 40,000. Through non-stop traffic on the A4 in Reading is between 25 and 30 per cent. of the total volume of traffic taken in a 24-hour period.

The particular source of the problem is Berkeley Avenue in the southern part of the borough where 23 per cent. of the traffic flowing through in a 24-hour cycle consists of heavy commercial vehicles.

There is no question but that the borough has been doing its best to cope with the situation. There is a twophase system of traffic control, the first of which was introduced for one-way flow in June of last year and the second of which came into operation as recently as last month. This consists, broadly speaking, of providing an extensive, one-way working system for traffic flowing from east to west and west to east.

From June last year the A4 eastbound traffic was routed through Sidmouth Street, Queen's Road, King's Road, and Cemetery Junction. Within the last few days the system has been extended to bring in Southampton Street and Mill Lane, and a further section of Queen's Road. I will not bother my hon. Friend with the details because the situation can be better seen by consulting a map. The borough, under both political parties, has done its best to cope with the situation.

It is right to mention that the east-west and west-east traffic is the real source of the problem. The north-south traffic does not provide much trouble. Though a difficulty arises in the area of Berkeley Avenue and Elgar Road, for a certain amount of traffic flowing from north to south, destined ultimately for Basingstoke, the A30 and Southampton, but provided the system of yellow boxes or clear junctions is kept operating it is not working too badly.

It is worth putting on record the number of accidents that have occurred on the A4 within the borough. This is quite apart from accidents outside the borough. Those were the subject of a Parliamentary Question which I put down last December, to which I shall refer shortly. In spite of the increase in the volume of traffic there has been a slight diminution in the number of accidents. This is attributable partly to the fact that the borough has tackled the problem as best it could. In 1967 there were 117 accidents on, the A4 within the borough. Two involved fatalities, 34 others were serious, and the remain-81 were slight. In 1968 the total number fell to 90. There were no fatalities, 28 accidents were serious and 64 were slight. In the period from January to 14th May 1969 there were 28 accidents, with no fatalities. Eight accidents were serious and 20 were slight.

It should be added that the figures for 1968 do not take account of certain other parts of the road included in the one-way system—including Sidmouth Street which—whilst not strictly part of the A4, are nevertheless an integral part of its traffic flow. In 1968 there were seven accidents on those parts of the road, which have to be added to the total. Two were serious and five were not. For the period for this year so far, there must be added five accidents, one of which was serious and the other four not so serious. Those figures must be added to the total in order to get a true picture of the traffic flowing through the town. The problem is not, as I have said, confined to the borough. In a Written Answer on 9th December last year, I was told that on the 41-mile length of the A4 in Berkshire there had been 24 accidents involving fatalities alone in 1968.

It being Four o'clock, the Motion for the Adjournment of the House lapsed, without Question put.

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Ioan L. Evans.]

Mr. Lee

My Question referred only to fatalities, so that does not give the full picture. There were many other serious accidents, and still more which the Ministry would classify as slight.

Everyone knows that in Berkshire the A4 carries far more traffic than is safe; this has been the situation for a considerable time. The answer is the completion of the M4. I do not complain that it has not been completed. Everyone would have liked to see it begun earlier and completed by now, but I do not criticise the Government for this. We know that there have been protracted delays as a result of all the inquiries that had to be made before the route could be properly determined. The fact that there has been strong feeling in some quarters about demolition and the amount of land that must be taken up by the feeder routes as well as the main trunk road is an indication that the inquiries were necessary. It would have been impossible and improper to try to ride roughshod over those who wanted to object.

But the citizens of Reading and the adjoining areas to both the east and the west have to live with the situation. My purpose in raising the matter is to ask my hon. Friend whether steps can be taken to divert some of the traffic which passes through the town. Traffic diversions are commonplace. The only thing that would be new is the idea of trying to sift out the traffic of various kinds and encourage that which is not destined for the town to go around it. This is not easy, and I do not pretend that it would be without a certain amount of inconvenience to those who would have to be diverted. But about a quarter of the traffic flowing along the A4 in Reading is through, non-stop, traffic. A considerable portion of it consists of heavy vehicles, and it does not take much imagination to visualise how much this adds to the town's problems.

All I ask for is an interim measure to help make life easier for people who work and live in and around the town between now and the completion of the motorway. I have no doubt that the problem will not disappear once the motorway is complete. Indeed, one cannot foresee such problems disappearing in this country for many years, if at all. But once it is complete there will obviously be a considerable reduction in the volume of traffic and a considerable change for the better in the character of the traffic passing through the town.

Many of my hon. Friends have approached me on this subject, because they have experienced the difficulties of going through Reading when they have been making their way to the West Country. This is not just a question of human inconvenience. Every time traffic is clogged in a borough it represents a degree of economic inefficiency, which should be minimised.

I do not suppose that my hon. Friend will be able to suggest a solution here and now, but I earnestly ask the Ministry to consider whether it can arrange in conjunction with the Thames Valley police and the borough authorities a permanent or semi-permanent diversion of heavy traffic around the town both for the benefit of the through traffic and more especially for the safety and comfort of those who live and work in the borough.

4.5 p.m.

The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport (Mr. Bob Brown)

My hon. Friend the Member for Reading (Mr. John Lee) has chosen an apt time to raise the question of traffic congestion in Reading, for we are on the eve of a Bank Holiday weekend when most motorists will be using their cars, many on quite long trips where they must pass through towns on their journeys. Reading, of course, is just such a town, standing as it does astride the important and busy A4 trunk route from London to the West and with six other main roads converging on to its centre.

It is apt, too, because Reading has very recently introduced an extensive traffic management scheme. The primary aim of this, of course, is to deal more effectively with the ordinary day-to-day traffic into and through the town centre. But an essential element of the scheme is to provide improved conditions on the A4 route which skirts the town centre. This is not only to benefit the through traffic but to dissuade drivers from taking alternative routes through the very centre of the town to the detriment of all the many other activities which must take place there. By its nature, this will not only help to keep out of the centre the many heavy vehicles on weekdays but will help to speed the weekend and holiday traffic on its way.

Through traffic and by-passes are closely associated in most people's minds. For the A4 route the most complete of all by-passes is planned, a parallel motorway M4 from London to South Wales. The eastern and western ends of this motorway are already in full use. The bit in the middle is still missing and, of course, it is this, more particularly the two sections between Holyport and Theale, which will help Reading. Work on these sections is due to start later this summer and this part of the road completed by the end of 1971. The programming of a link between M4 at Winnersh and the existing trunk route through Reading will be such as to permit its completion shortly afterwards. But to be realistic, we must appreciate that M4 will not be anything like a complete cure for Reading's troubles. It is estimated that the motorway will reduce the traffic in the centre of Reading by little more than 10 per cent. Naturally, this will be a boon to the road users of Reading as much as it will be to the through drivers, not least in diverting away from the town many of the large number of heavy commercial vehicles which the A4 carries.

There remains a need to serve the quarter of a million people living in and around Reading who want to make local journeys, the vast majority of journeys in a town of this kind. Because of natural barriers of rivers and railways with limited numbers of crossing points, local motorists have no option but to pass through the centre of the town if they need to get to the other side as well as into it. These needs are being met by a new modern dual carriageway inter distribution road circling the town centre. The first stage, the western section from Caversham Road to Castle Street, is already being built and should be complete in the autumn. Work on the second stage, the southern section from Castle Street to Southampton Street, has already started and is due to be finished early in 1971. The third stage, the eastern section from Southampton Street to Vastern Road is expected to start in 1971–72 and be completed by 1974–75. Together, these stages will provide 1½ miles of new road at a cost of some £6½ million on a loop round the central area. When complete there will be little or no need for drivers to penetrate into the town centre itself unless they need to reach premises there.

Work of this nature and scale takes time. It is not entirely a matter of money, though this is, of course, important. There must be a limit to disruption caused by building this kind of road which a town can absorb at any one time. Work has to be staged. While this is happening, the situation has to be met by other means. This is where the third line of attack, traffic management, is needed.

Reading is active in this as well. For a long time it has operated sensible street parking control in its town centre and approach roads as well as dealing with the conflicts between moving vehicles and vehicles and pedestrians in a variety of ways. I have already mentioned an extensive traffic management scheme. This consists of one-way streets brought into operation on Sunday, 4th May. This is the second of three phases of a comprehensive system designed not only to hold the position until the inner distribution road can do its work, but to fit in with the stages of its construction to encourage the maximum use of it at each stage. The first phase of the management scheme, a local scheme round Cemetery Junction, was put into operation last summer. The third phase, dealing with the town centre roads themselves, is likely to follow at the end of the year.

This scheme was prepared from a joint study by the council and my Department as a demonstration project. We have been actively involved in the design as well as heavily contributing to the £¼ million cost. Extensive studies are being made to evaluate the benefits and dis-benefits arising to improve advice and guidance to other people. The scheme has as its aims the four main objectives which have since become embodied in the request for traffic and transport plans from urban authorities with 50,000 population or more. These are to relieve congestion, improve public transport, improve road safety and safeguard the environment.

The removal and simplification of conflicts helps traffic to move. It helps to prevent accidents as well and to extend this pedestrian "cross now" facilities have been provided at 11 sites. An avoiding route intruding into unsuitable minor residential streets has been cut and the attraction of others is reduced by freer movement on the main roads. The final stage of the scheme will reduce substantially the amount of traffic using Broad Street the main shopping street. On completion of the second stage of the inner distribution road the opportunity largely to exclude traffic from substantial parts of Broad Street and St. Mary's Butts is likely.

Mr. John Lee

Of course I appreciate this and it is common ground between us, but there is one aspect which is of the greatest importance. Until the schemes are completed, of the nature of things, there are bound to be added problems because of the actual workings. For instance, while the inner distribution scheme is being constructed, the M4 will be constructed. That is one of the things which temporarily makes matters even worse.

Mr. Brown

I take the point.

The need to provide specially for buses is well to the fore. It is recognised that this is a way to help most travellers and the way to help buses to offer an attractive and competitive service. Already a contra-flow bus lane has operated in Kings Road since June, 1968, to the considerable advantage of the operators and passengers alike, both in improving travel time and in saving the need to put on extra buses purely to make up for delays on schedules. The possibility for comprehensive bus priorities on two to three miles of route, including passage of the town centre, is now being examined.

So in all three respects, by-passing through traffic, building new town roads and managing existing streets to make the best use of them, there is strong and vigorous progress in Reading. But this cannot be the whole story. There is a limit to the amount of new road space that can be provided in towns without destroying their essential character. In the end there must be a sensible balance between the number of vehicles attracted into towns and the road space they can use.

Consequently, the amount of parking space for the town centre and where it is sited become crucial. Here, again, Reading is making progress. Already street parking is preserved for the short-term caller only. Other needs are met by off-street car parks, which are well distributed round the town centre, providing opportunities for drivers to park before penetrating the busiest central streets. These car parks are sited so that they can be reached from the inner distribution road in due course. Two of them are now multi-storey at the east and west sides of the centre providing for more than 1,700 cars between them, and further car parks are planned as parts of the inner distribution road come into use to serve them.

Consequently action is being taken on all possible fronts to ease traffic difficulties in Reading. Reading is being extremely active and in this it has the full support of my Department. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising some of these problems. In the cold light of print we shall be able to study further what he has said and possibly draw some more lessons.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at a quarter past Four o'clock till Monday, 9th June, pursuant to the Resolution of the House of 19th May.