MILVERTON (TRAFFIC CONDITIONS) (Hansard, 11 May 1970)

§ Mr. Edward du Cann (Taunton)

I do not ordinarily pronounce myself publicly or privately as being in favour of lotteries, Mr. Speaker, but there is everything to be said for the happy chance that allows me now to raise the subject of traffic conditions in the village of Milverton, in Somerset—a long way from Tonga. I am grateful to the Parliamentary Secretary for his kindness and courtesy in being here at this late hour to answer the debate, as I am also grateful to you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to raise the subject.

I am fortunate to have many delightful villages in my constituency, but Milverton is very lovely and, indeed, one of the loveliest. I should like to tell the House something about it. They say that it was founded by the Lady Edith, daughter of Edward the Confessor and fiancée of 1025 King Harold. It is certainly mentioned in Domesday. Her Majesty the Queen is lord of the manor and, by a curious coincidence, her daughter, Princess Anne, will be visiting Taunton, though not Milverton, within the next ten hours, and I am looking forward to greeting her there.

As one might expect with such a romantic background, it is described in the Somerset County development plan as having … more than average amenity value. That is a piece of English understatement, for the village possesses the astonishing number of 30 listed houses, a most beautiful church, and a vicarage said to have been built by Wolsey, though there is no real authority for that statement. It has an important group of fine Georgian buildings in North Street and other remarkable buildings in other streets.

In sum, it is a very beautiful place. It has unique charm and character. It is one of the loveliest villages in Somerset and in the West Country, if not in the whole of England. My constituents well understand their duty to keep and to cherish such a heritage, and I shall do my best in this regard, as, I hope, will the Minister.

Through the village runs the main trunk road, the A.361, better known as the Taunton-Barnstaple road. I will describe it, or at least that part of it that is the cause of my anxiety and the reason for this debate.

There is a two mile stretch beginning at the village of Preston Bowyer, with a double S-bend at King's Corner and Farley's, and in one part of the village, at any rate, there are no footpaths of any sort. The road passes on to a steep hill and a narrow gorge, then a long slow descent of about 400 yards to the village of Milverton. Then there is a sharp right-angle turn left over a narrow rail-way bridge. One proceeds further west through 20 ft. high stone walls to England's Corner, a crossroads also used by local traffic. Then there is a sharp right-angle turn up through North Street, to which I have already referred, past the Georgian houses and the cobbled footway. The road narrows to 15 ft. 6 in. opposite Dr. Watson's house. There is a minor S-bend in the middle in the uphill stretch, and at least two blind spots in the road. One proceeds perhaps another 300 yds. 1026 or 400 yds. before leaving the curtilage of the village, but before that there is another right-angle bend, if not a Z bend, at the Mount, and the road for another 400 yds. or so is not up to the full standard. It is a bad bit of road for what is a trunk road.

Perhaps I might now give some specific examples of the problems we face. There are eight places where two lorries of average size cannot pass each other—eight places in just a few hundred yards. At England's Corner vision is obscured in whatever direction one comes from or wishes to go to. It is a frequent occurrence for lorries to have to back and turn. That might perhaps be expected on a country lane, but surely not on a main trunk road. I myself went through that main road with care last Sunday afternoon in the pouring rain. I found 20 places where there were scars on the walls from collisions. Rocklyne, a seventeenth century house, if not built of the solid red Somerset stone would have been demolished. As it is, the occupants have had a crane in one of their rooms. This is not an isolated or exaggerated example. Mount Farm, on the Wiveliscombe side of the village, has five times had to have the lean-to roof of the kitchen replaced. Four times a wall which borders the road has been knocked down. It was down again last Sunday. In North Street there is a house with a porch light which has been ripped off five times in the past 18 months by passing traffic. In Wood Street a canopy over a door has been similarly broken away. In Preston Bowyer downpipes have been so frequently broken that they have not been replaced.

There are constant maintenance difficulties. The main sewer, laid only two years ago, is fractured and the manhole covers are having to be replaced. One can imagine the number of potholes in the road. The situation is very unsatisfactory. Lorries carrying 40 ft. long trailers cannot get through a place like Milverton without problems. The size of lorries is increasing and we are told that new car transporters with trailers are to try to get through the village.

The need for a by-pass has long been recognised, sought for and admitted. I have always accepted this as incontrovertible in the 14 years that I have been Member of Parliament for Taunton. A 1027 by-pass was first planned in the early twenties, 50 years ago. In the Somerset County Review of 1934 it was confirmed that a route had been surveyed and was recommended. I quote what was said at the time: It is a practicable scheme which if carried out would preserve the amenities of Milverton and avoid expensive demolition at danger points. Note the words " danger points ". There was a clear inference as far back as 1934, 36 years ago, that the road was dangerous. Road use then was a fraction of the volume of what it is now. Then also alternatives were available—our railway was closed in October, 1966. Traffic speeds were slower then. If there was danger then, there is much more now.

I give two further examples of the endorsement of this project in time past. In 1956, the year I was elected to this House, the Minister made an Order entitled The Taunton. Barnstaple, Bude, Fraddon Trunk Road (Milverton and Preston Bowyer Bypass) Order, 1956. I have had correspondence and discussion with every Minister of Transport —since I was elected there have been six —and with innumerable Parliamentary Secretaries. In 1963 the then Minister wrote to me We certainly recognise the need for a by-pass.

This proposal is supported by the whole village, by Milverton Parish Council, Wellington Rural District Council and the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, to call it by its old name. Everyone in the village is grateful for the interest shown by those excellent men the Somerset county surveyors and the local D.R.E., but we need more than interest. We need action by the Government.

I move from polemics to statistics and the accident record. In the last six years fortunately there have been no fatal accidents, but accidents resulting in injury on this stretch of road have numbered 19 and there have been double that number of accidents which did not result in injury. If there is no by-pass there will certainly be more accidents and one day, alas, one at least will be fatal.

1028 I now give statistics of traffic flow. The combined two-way flow of vehicles was last measured in August 1965. The figures in vehicles per 16-hour day are as follows. For a peak August Saturday in 1965, 14,200. The forecast for 1970 is 19,000. For an average August day, the 1965 figure was 5,700. The forecast for 1970 is 7,600. An annual average day in 1965 was 3,100. The forecast for 1970 is 4,100.

There are some who suggest that our problems in the West Country are only a seasonal matter. That is not so in this case. This is a year-round problem. The village and its buildings are threatened by a constant traffic flow—what is more, it is a constantly increasing traffic flow—which its roads were never intended to carry. Apart from the inconvenience that one can imagine, there is the potential danger through vibration, pollution, and so on.

Unfortunately, it is certain that the pressure of traffic will increase. Apart from the normal increase—8 per cent. compound per annum, or whatever the figure may be—this is a holiday route and—this is something which will make a special appeal to the Parliamentary Secretary, with his special experience and knowledge of the North-East-it is the shortest route to Barnstaple and a development area. There are transport depots en route and, as the Parliamentary Secretary's researchers will have already told him, there has been the development of the Reserve Supply Depot at Norton Fitzwarren into an industrial storage space, which we all welcome but which must add to the pressure.

It is right that I should attempt to answer the question: is any other solution than a by-pass feasible? One answer is, " Yes "; we could knock down some of the wonderful buildings of which I have spoken. The real answer in common sense is, " No ". There is only one answer, and that is to build a by-pass and build it quickly.

The present Minister of Transport said to me in a letter in January, following upon the publication of the Green Paper, that he has under consideration, as the Parliamentary Secretary knows full well, the future status of A361 as a trunk road. I understand that his decision on whether a by-pass will proceed as a trunk road scheme must await his decision on 1029 the status of A361. Writing to me on 4th May the Minister said this: I am sorry that I am still not in a position to announce my final decision on this matter ". I understand that. But the hard-pressed residents, long-distance motorists and commercial users should not have to wait for a decision on the relative merits of a trunk road via Milverton or Tiverton to know precisely where they stand.

Therefore, my first question to the Parliamentary Secretary is this. When does he think it will be possible for the Minister to make a decision in this regard? The present position is plainly insupportable. On the other hand, I recognise the difficulties. The Ministry has an immense number of schemes competing for limited, if generally speaking expanding, funds. I believe that we should finance our road programmes differently, but I will not develop that point at this time.

What I want to do is to put a proposal to the Parliamentary Secretary. The probable route of any by-pass would be along the abandoned railway line. I mentioned earlier that the railway line was abandoned in October, 1966. For most of the length of that by-pass, that would be the case. It would go south of Preston Bowyer and north of Milverton for a length of about two miles. My estimate of cost would be about £½ million. The Minister would, under the present procedural rules, consider it in relation to trunk road schemes on a national basis. Although conditions in Milverton are, as I hope I have illustrated, extremely difficult, I recognise that, justified as Milverton's claim unquestionably is, the Milverton by-pass could not show a particularly high priority rating in that regard. In a sense it is a despairing prospect. I feel that we are rather in the position of Sisyphus: as soon as we manage to get somewhere near the top of the hill, the rules alter and down we come again.

The route of that by-pass would cross the A361 at the old Milverton Station. It is logical, therefore, to consider the by-pass in two sections—first, the section to by-pass Preston Bowyer and, second, the section to by-pass Milverton. I suggest that this is what we should do. A single carriageway by-pass to trunk road standards, or at least to tolerably high stan- 1030 dards, would cost, I estimate, less than £¼. million.

If the Minister were able—I suggest that this, too, would be reasonable—to confine his priority computations to schemes in the South-West rather than nationally, I have no doubt that the Milverton by-pass would qualify. Indeed, I think it reasonable to call it a relief road.

Since the debate was announced, I was pleased to have persuaded the Minister to write to me, as he did, on 4th May. I shall quote him again: I am going to ask the County Council to investigate the possibilities and justification for carrying out a less ambitious relief road scheme. These investigations will be likely to take some time to complete"— one understands that— and I must make clear that I cannot enter into any commitments at this stage. I understand that, too.

My second question to the Parliamentary Secretary, who has been good enough to follow me so far, is this: Does he think that it will be possible to consider a scheme in two sections as I suggest, and will he be good enough to examine the possibility of using the old railway line for at least a relief road for Milverton?

That is not an unreasonable request to make. Our people are anxious, and with considerable justification. It is in no way an unfair request. There has been some suggestion in the village that there should be demonstrations and the like. I can understand that people are bound to feel impatient; this matter has gone on for a very long time. They feel that their life is threatened. But I hope that it may be possible to put forward a legitimate point of view in this way, and I hope that people will not be forced to misbehave as a result of their frustration. In a word, I hope that the Parliamentary Secretary will be able to accede to my request, so that this debate may be yet a further stage, and an important stage, in bringing much needed relief.

Last weekend, I drove in a motor car over the length of the railway line as far as I could get, and I am convinced that it is a practicable scheme.

Again, I thank the hon. Gentleman for listening, and I hope that he has something helpful to say.

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

The unsatisfactory nature of the Taunton to Fraddon trunk road where, as the A361, it passes through Milverton is fully appreciated. As the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Taunton (Mr. du Cann) has pointed out, the road is narrow, with a sharp right-angle bend between North Street and Station Road, known as England's Corner. As the right hon. Gentleman well knows, this has not been denied in the considerable correspondence he has had with Ministers. Indeed, I should like to give the right hon. Gentleman full credit for so actively taking the part of his constituents over about the past fifteen years on this issue. He has never let his interest lapse.

It has been accepted for many years that a significant improvement in the situation could be achieved only by building a by-pass, since comprehensive improvement of the road on its existing alignment through Milverton is completely impracticable. As the right hon. Gentleman recognises, it has been consistently pointed out in correspondence that the problem is not one of whether a by-pass should be built but of when it could be justified in competition with all the other calls on the funds available, whether nationally or locally, bearing in mind that funds are still very limited in relation to the growing needs all over the country. It is, therefore, on the question of priority that I shall concentrate tonight.

Setting priorities is essentially a matter of comparing need and likely economic returns on the money invested. I agree with the right hon. Gentleman that when last measured in 1965 the average daily flow of vehicles in both directions on the A361 through Milverton in August was of the order of 5,700, the proportion of heavy goods vehicles being comparatively low at 6½ per cent. Allowing for growth in traffic since then it is reasonable to estimate the present flow to be of the order of 7,600 vehicles on an average August day. I accept that the figures for a peak August Saturday are very much higher, but for an average day over the year as a whole they are considerably lower.

1032 However, to get this in perspective I would draw the right hon. Gentleman's attention to the equivalent figures for an average August day at some other places on the same trunk road further west. At South Molton the flow figures are slightly less at around 5,200 vehicles in 1965 and an estimated 7,000 now. But near Barnstaple they are around 11,350 for August 1965 and now estimated to be 15,200, and at Instow 8,800 in 1965 and an estimated 11,800 now. At Wellington, on the A38, where the proposal to provide a relief road was mentioned by the Milverton Parish Council in a recent letter to the Minister forwarded by the right hon. Gentleman, the flow figures are around 12,900 for 1965 and an estimated 17,300 now.

Of course, traffic flows by themselves are not necessarily an accurate indication of the degree of need. Much depends also on the width and layout of the existing road at a given place or over particular lengths, since this affects its ability to accept the flows at desirable speeds and at an acceptably low accident rate. To provide better information on the extent to which various parts of the trunk road system are congested, and hence to help to identify the lengths upon which the need for relief is greatest, we employ calculations incorporating travel and accident loss, which I shall refer to as TAL. The travel and accident loss for a length of road is an estimate of the difference between the operating costs, that is vehicle operating costs plus time costs plus accident costs, on the existing road and the corresponding costs as they would be on a road of identical length carrying the same volume of traffic but constructed to modern dual—carriageway standards. Comparative annual travel and accident losses per mile expressed in thousands of pounds and projected to 1974 in the vicinity of the following places are: Milverton 13.2. near Barnstaple 76.4, and Wellington 88.2.

TAL figures give a general indication of need but on their own they do not necessarily give a true indication of where improvements are most justified when the cost of carrying them out is taken into consideration. For this purpose, at a later stage in the preparation of schemes, it is necessary to compare the economic return to be gained by investing in competing schemes. This is done 1033 by setting the likely benefits in terms of savings in operating and accident costs against the cost of construction. But the TAL figures I have quoted do show that, compared with other parts of the trunk road system in the same area—let alone over the country as a whole—the degree of need for relief at Milverton is very low. They also show why we have consistently said that we cannot see our way to giving priority to a by-pass there and, incidentally, why we have been able to authorise the preparation of a scheme to by-pass Barnstaple and to offer grant towards the cost of a comparatively inexpensive improvement to relieve the A38 through Wellington.

One of the factors contributing to the low TAL figure for the A361 at Milverton is the comparatively small number of accidents involving personal injury—13 in the six years 1964–1969. It is reasonable to suppose that some of these—and perhaps a greater proportion of the 26 non-injury accidents reported over the five years 1964–1968—took place at England's Corner. Consequently, faced with the fact that the early construction of a by-pass could not be justified in competition with other schemes elsewhere, the Divisional Road Engineer prepared outline plans for a comparatively inexpensive improvement at England's Corner which would have made it much easier for traffic, particularly heavy vehicles, to negotiate the sharp bend at this point. This would have provided permanent improvement of conditions at what will always be a difficult corner even after it is by-passed. The divisional road engineer recently met the parish council to discuss this proposal but, despite his personal assurance that the improvement I have referred to would not delay the eventual construction of a bypass, the council overwhelmingly rejected it, principally on amenity grounds. In the face of this local opposition, we do do not intend to proceed with the idea, and I am sorry about this.

Following publication of the Green Paper " Roads for the Future " the South West Economic Planning Council asked that consideration should be given to the construction of an improved strategic link between the M5 and the north Devon 1034 development area. The Minister hopes soon to announce his decision on the many representations he has received concerning his proposed strategic network, but meanwhile it is clear that, if a major route betwen the M5 and north Devon were to be constructed, it would have the effect of reducing the volume of traffic on the A361 through Milverton and Preston Bowyer and of reducing the economic justification for a by-pass. For this reason it has already been explained to the right hon. Gentleman that decisions on the priority for a full by-pass, which it is estimated would cost about £½ million for a single 2-lane carriageway, cannot be taken until decisions can be reached on whether and when the construction of a new north Devon route might be justified.

In the interests of quick action, the right hon. Gentleman has referred to the possibility of considering separate schemes for Milverton and Preston Bowyer. Of these two, we would prefer to put the higher priority on a scheme for Milverton, where conditions are worse. We are in fact prepared to agree to a recent request from the county surveyor that a smaller interim by-pass of Milverton only should be investigated. Such a scheme would make use of the abandoned railway line nearby and, it is thought, might cost around £220,000. It seems at first sight to be a practicable proposition, but whether the early construction of even a less expensive scheme of this sort would offer an adequate return of the money invested will largely depend on a more detailed estimate of cost, and an assessment of the likely benefits, and I am sorry that I can give no assurance that funds could be made available for it in the near future.

Subject to information being received from the county council, it should be possible, however, to decide in about six months' time whether a by-pass of Milverton only would justify acceptance into the divisional road engineer's future programme.