§ 5. Mr. Marksasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when construction of the proposed A57 relief road to bypass the Denton, Lancashire town centre will begin.
§ Mr. Graham PagePreparation has not yet reached the stage where a date for the start of construction can be given. My right hon. Friend hopes to publish proposals for the line of the relief road soon.
§ Mr. MarksIs the Minister aware that there have been repeated postponements 422 of this project over the past 15 years? While residents are grateful for the Department's attitude to the purchase and renting of houses which are blighted, these repeated postponements cause inconvenience and delay to heavy traffic and frustration of town development in the area.
§ Mr. PageThe hon. Gentleman exaggerates when he says 15 years. This project went into the preparation pool in 1968 and the preliminary report was approved in May, 1971. I hope that proposals for the route of the relief road will be published a little later—in July or early August this year—and that it will go into the programme for the early part of 1972. It has been a very complex scheme with 500 properties to be demolished. We must get the road in the right position when a scheme is as important as that.