HC Deb 21 June 1978 vol 952 cc675-84

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

1.10 a.m.

Mr. Michael Brotherton (Louth)

I am grateful to have the opportunity to raise the subject of road communications on the south bank of the Humber. First, I would like the House to consider the geography of the Humber, north and south. There are two main ports on the Humber—Immingham, on the south bank, and Hull, on the north bank. Grimsby, a secondary port, is on the south bank. Grimsby and Immingham are, in fact, the same port: they are jointly called the port of Grimsby and Immingham by the British Transport Docks Board. On the south bank we have very poor road communications. Recently there has been completed the M62, which runs from Hull across the country to Liverpool. It runs the whole way across the nation. On the south bank, however, we have nothing like that.

We are building at the moment the Humber Bridge, which is to connect the two banks. There are those who say that the bridge is being built because there was a by-election in Hull in January 1966 and the right hon. Member for Blackburn (Mrs. Castle), then Minister of Transport, went to Hull and said that the Socialist Government would build a bridge across the Humber. That bridge is in the process of being constructed, and we all know now that, although it started at an estimated cost of £19 million, the cost will eventually end up at about £90 million. There is no way of preventing that bridge from being completed. It is a white elephant; it is unnecessary, and it goes from nowhere to nowhere. When it comes to the south bank of the Humber, there is no real road communication that is of any use at all.

Why do we need good roads on the south bank? The ports of Immingham and Grimsby together are the brightest jewel in the crown of the British Transport Docks Board. They make an enormous profit. Hull makes a loss while Grimsby and Immingham make a huge profit. At Immingham, which is in my constituency, we have ICI, Fisons and the port, and millions of tons of goods go over the quay there every year. Immingham is the sixth largest port in the United Kingdom. Yet we have no roads. Grimsby is a great fishing port, but the Department of Transport has said recently that it is not to be regarded as a port at all.

The M180 is the road that is to go from the Humber Bridge across to Immingham and Grimsby. We are told that it will stop just short of Grimsby because Grimsby is no longer to be regarded as a major port. The road is to end at Pywipe. Pywipe is a field just outside Grimsby in my constituency. This dual carriageway is to end in a ploughed field, and we are told that this is because the Department of Transport no longer regards Grimsby as a major port.

It is not for me to make the case for Grimsby, because Grimsby is not in my constituency. Grimsby, however, is the major fishing port of the Humber. In Grimsby there are such factories as Findus, La Porte and Ross. There are other major food processors. Many of my constituents in Cleethorpes work in Grimsby. If one were to drive along the A18 on any night when the fishing vessels have come into Grimsby, one would know that many dozens of lorries go along that route. A tremendous traffic block is built up night after night because Grimsby, regardless of what the Ministry may say, is a port. Regardless of what the Ministry may say, Grimsby is a major fishing port which generates a tremendous amount of traffic.

My constituents in Cleethorpes, Humberston and the surrounding towns go to Grimsby to work or to fish. They may go to work in the factories that I have mentioned. As a result of all the jobs in which those people are engaged, traffic is generated and enormous numbers of lorries have to go along these roads. We are now told by the Ministry that nothing will be done: first, that nothing will be done until the 1980s and, secondly, that the road will stop at Pywipe.

Can the Minister really say that he regards Grimsby not to be a port? Can he really say that he does not regard the people in my constituency as working in a port? Can he really say that the traffic going from Grimsby towards the Humber Bridge, or the traffic going towards the Al and Ml, is not important? Can he really say that he does not believe that this road is important?

I have said that we have the M62 on the north bank of the Humber. What is required on the south bank, as all those who work on the south bank know, is a decent east-west road communications system. The Humber Bridge is of little use to my constituents or to all those who work on the south bank. What is required is something which will tie in with the Al and MI north-south major trunk roads of the United Kingdom. We need roads which will tie in with the M62 so that we can get across the country to Liverpool.

At the moment, we have absolutely nothing at all. The M180 is being built and the Brigg bypass has been completed. Obviously, those who live in that area thank the Minister and the Department for what has been done, but the fact remains that the south bank is being betrayed in that we do not have a sufficient communications system which tics in with the north-south trunk routes of the nation. We are being totally ignored by the Department. We are being ignored to the extent that even the planning of the road will stop at Pywipe and will not even continue into Grimsby.

Those who live on the south bank of the Humber regard with great cynicism the granting of development area status to the south bank of the Humber just before the Grimsby by-election of about a year ago. Just over a year ago, the south bank of the Humber was given development area status, but since then nothing has been done to improve our communications or to give us a decent road system. Nothing has been done to help the people of Grimsby and Immingham to communicate with the rest of the country. People are in despair. What will the Minister do to help us?

1.20 a.m.

The Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr. John Horam)

The hon. Member for Louth (Mr. Brotherton) has raised the subject of the road system on the south bank of the Humber and has made some fierce criticisms. He said that the south bank had a poor road system and that it was being betrayed. That is a travesty of the truth, as I am sure, in calmer moments—perhaps at an earlier hour—he would recognise.

The road systems on the south bank are beginning to be very good indeed and we are making striking progress in improving them still further. At the end of the next two or three years they will be among the best in the country, considering the size of the area and the amount of traffic.

The hon. Gentleman said that the Government did not regard Grimsby as a port and he asked why a road ended in a field. In both cases he is absolutely wrong. Of course we regard Grimsby as a port. The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is lighting to secure its interests as a port. Nor does the road end in a field. The Grimsby-West Marsh relief road is to be built by the Humberside County Council as a 1½ mile stretch of new road, to connect with the A18 trunk road termination in the Pywipe industrial estate—it is not a field—with the Grimsby town road network and the docks area, which is just the part of the port which should be connected with the road system.

The scheme will cost £4.25 million at today's prices and work is expected to start in time for its completion to be phased in with the opening of the new A18, which will connect with the new M180 on the eastern side of Brigg. That will mean a complete new road of a high standard connecting the port of Grimsby with all the main centres of population in the North and, further down, with the Al and M1.

We are also putting on the improved Al8 a stretch which will be called the Immingham spur, which will connect the existing A160 to the A18 and give direct and much better communication for the port of Immingham via the M180 and the A18 to the main motorway network. The double port, to use the hon. Gentleman's term, of Grimsby and Immingham will have direct high-quality connections with the motorway system. Therefore, his second point is not true either.

Indeed, the strategy, as it deserves to be called because of the considerable thought and effort which have gone into it, is based on a clear regional strategy for Yorkshire and Humberside which involves improving the road communications to the Humber ports not only in regard to the need for trade with Europe, which will obviously increase through the eastern ports, but in regard to the industrial potential of these areas. The hon. Member referred to the status of Grimsby and other parts of South Humberside.

This clear policy has been carried through with a remarkable amount of road building. I have recently opened the Brigg bypass, which is part of the M180, and I know the areas very well. I pay tribute to my hon. Friends the Members for Grimsby (Mr. Mitchell) and for Brigg and Scunthorpe (Mr. Ellis), who have pressed hard for the steady progress that we are making, and making very much on time. As the hon. Member knows, road schemes can fall behind time all too often, but I am sure that there is the will on South Humberside to see that the schemes are completed. I am sure that they will be completed on time without too much interruption. Most of them are well on time and will meet the target dates.

Mr. Brotherton

I am sorry that the Minister's hon. Friends are not in the Chamber this evening for this debate. Can he answer the point I made about whether the Department regards Grimsby as a major port? The Department stated recently that it did not regard Grimsby as a major port, and this was one reason why the M180 extension would end at Pywipe.

Mr. Horam

The ports of Immingham and Hull have a higher throughput in terms of tonnage and volume of business than Grimsby. Therefore, they get a different status and a different category of treatment. It is really a matter of wording. We have provided and will provide, in conjunction with the Humberside County Council, a good system of road communications for Grimsby. That is what matters. It does not matter whether the road is called a trunk road or a county road as long as it serves adequately the needs of road hauliers and traffic using the port. In that context Grimsby will be extremely well served.

Mr. Brotherton

I make no apology for pressing this. According to the British Transport Docks Board, the port is known as the port of Immingham and Grimsby. The twin ports are regarded as one, and they make an enormous profit for the Board. How can the Minister say that he regards Grimsby in a different light from Immingham?

Mr. Horam

The argument for putting Grimsby in a different category is a matter of simple fact in terms of tonnage. The hon. Gentleman himself confirmed that when he said that Grimsby was the secondary port of Grimsby and Immingham. It should be stressed, however, that Grimsby and Immingham need to have good road communications. The plans that I have indicated—the M180, the A18, the Immingham spur and West Marsh relief road—will connect the ports of Immingham and Grimsby directly by good, high-quality roads to the motorway network. That is what matters. Whether the road is called a trunk road, a motorway or a county road is immaterial as long as it is a good road that serves the purpose. In that respect, the particular category of port is also irrelevant. What matters is the communications.

We are providing on the north bank the M62, which gives excellent east-west communications from coast to coast for North Humberside. In South Humberside we are providing the M180, which will improve communications east-west along South Humberside. Furthermore, it will tie in with the M1 and the Al via the M18. That itself will provide north-south communications. The Humber Bridge also fits into that scene because it will connect the M62 with the M180. In addition—this is the kernel of the hon. Gentleman's argument—the M180 will continue via the Alb and via the West Marsh relief road and the Immingham spur to connect the ports of Grimsby and Immingham with the main motorway network.

There is also a scheme for improving the Al5 route to link the Humber Bridge southern approaches with the M180. That is now under construction. Furthermore, there are plans to extend that improvement to the A15 to link it south near the county boundary—namely, the junction of Lincolnshire and South Humberside, south of Redbourne. That relates to the north-south communications.

There is also the Louth bypass, and I am surprised that the hon. Gentleman did not mention it at any length. As he knows, we have a scheme for improving that bypass, which is most important to the town. It is a lovely town with an important and attractive area in the centre, containing many listed buildings, including the famous St. James's Church.

Mr. Brotherton

The Minister will realise that I did not mention the Louth bypass because I was talking about roads in South Humberside, not about roads in Lincolnshire.

Mr. Horam

But the hon. Gentleman will appreciate that the A16 passes from South Humberside through Lincolnshire on its way south to Stamford. That important north-south road has been scheduled for comprehensive improvement and was put into the preparation pool for such improvement as long ago as September 1975. One or two improvements have already taken place to the north of Louth. The Louth bypass is now a subject for discussion and work by the Department and there will shortly be public consultation on the various alternative proposals in that respect. There will be other improvements on that general line of route. That is something that matters not only to Lincolnshire and to Louth but also to traffic from other parts of the country to South Humberside and the ports of Grimsby and Immingham.

Perhaps I may give a little detail on the progress of the M180. The Brigg bypass, which I opened last summer in the presence of my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Scunthorpe, was completed in September 1977. The remainder is now all under construction and will be opened in stages as lengths are connected at either end when the existing highway system is completed. The section between Thorne and the A161 is expected to be finished by October this year. We hope to finish the section from the A161 to Scunthorpe, including the Trent bridge crossing to the A18, by January 1979 and the Scunthorpe southern bypass by the same date

Subject, therefore, to some difficulty over the Trent bridge, where there have been one or two genuine problems which the contractor has come across, that whole stretch of the A180 motorway and the central east-west communication for South Humberside will be open for use at the beginning of 1979. That will provide in many respects a high-quality road. In some places it will be a three-lane carriageway and for other short sec- tions it will be a two-lane carriageway, but all of it will be dual carriageway. Much if it will relieve existing small villages and towns, such as Brigg, and other places along the route from what have been decades of severe traffic congestion.

When I opened the bypass, I was told that people in Brigg could not hear themselves talk in the shops along the High Street because of the volume of traffic that daily threaded its way through the town. That affects the environment and quality of life of the people of the area which are as important as the industrial needs of ports and the general industrial infrastructure of South Humberside.

The A18 continues to make progress on schedule. The draft line order for the A18 Brigg to Grimsby road was published in December 1977 and the draft side roads order was published a few days ago. There were 30 objections to the line order, mostly from landowners, and they included suggestions for an alternative route. My hon. Friends the Members for Grimsby and for Brigg and Scunthorpe have been so anxious that we should make progress that they have suggested we should cut public consultation to a minimum, but there have been 30 objections and it will be necessary to hold a public inquiry, probably in the autumn of this year. This will add a little time to the project, though it will still be within the schedule of progress that we have mapped out. The inevitable price of proper consultation with local people is that we must consider their legitimate objections. We considered that a public inquiry would probably be necessary and we allowed sufficient time for it. There will be no putting back of the date when the road will be in being.

The new A18 Brigg to Grimsby trunk road will be about 13¾ miles long and will have dual two-lane carriageways. The new trunk road link—the Immingham spur—will be about a mile long and will have a single two-lane carriageway. The total cost of the new A18 will be £27 million, and if progress goes according to schedule, as it should, we shall have it completed by the end of 1981.

If one considers the figures that I have mentioned for these roads, one can see the quality of the road infrastructure going into South Humberside. The hon. Gentleman is being totally unfair to the Government. Many parts of the country would be glad of the sort of treatment that we are rightly giving to South Humberside, and the industrial infrastructure will benefit accordingly. I have not even mentioned some of the other schemes that are being carried out in the area; for example, the A15 connection from the M180 to the Humber Bridge, which will cost £8.3 million, all granted by the Department. That is proceeding on schedule in three sections, is timed to open with the Humber Bridge, and will play its part in building a proper system for North and South Humberside.

The hon. Gentleman should acknowledge what is being done by way of road improvements in South Humberside. On any objective analysis, considerable improvements are being made and South Humberside is getting a very good deal. I am sure that those who travel in the area and who have had to put up with a great deal in the past can see from the sheer volume of building that is taking place and the plans in hand that they are getting a really good deal.

Question put and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at twenty minutes to Two o'clock.