§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Goodlad.]
2.31 pm§ Mr. Tony Speller (Devon, North)Although the Barnstaple urban relief road is not just a strip of tarmac joining one place to another it has physical and social consequences far beyond the capacity of the road builder to imagine. In order to have a worthwhile future British industry must get away from the "dark satanic mills" image of uncomfortable factories in industrial slums, where so much bad is perpetuated; away from outdated machines and work methods, the class war and the "us and them" syndrome of the big old-fashioned dark and dismal factory.
In my constituency most factories are small, modern, light and airy, with good working conditions. There is an identity of interest at work between all levels of responsibility and a natural acceptance of equality outside the workplace.
Anyone planning to start up in light industry today looks not only for the most economic place to go but for a location in which it is pleasant to live and work. Fishing, sailing, shooting, walking and riding are some of the pursuits available in the West Country and North Devon. Such pursuits are considerations close to the thoughts of manufacturers when they wish to come and work with us. We lack only one thing—a decent road system that will get agricultural and industrial products eastwards to market and our tourists westwards to us.
In my simple request today I am supported by Devon county council, North Devon district council, Barnstaple council, manufacturers' associations, chambers of commerce, and many other associations and individuals to whom the interests of the area are clear. These are areas in which people live and work, so they know what they ask and why they ask it.
The North Devon link road stage 1 goes from the M5 to Tiverton, and is now at the planning stage. We hope for a start in 1981. The road will be mainly of dual carriageway standard. Government policy is for a virtually continuous building programme until the link between the M5 and Tiverton, South Molton, Barnstaple and Bideford is built, with completion possible in the late 1980s.
No one disputes the need for a better road, and the Government are to be congratulated and supported in their work to date. When the link reaches Barnstaple it swings westwards to bypass and reduce traffic and dense congestion in villages such as Bickington, Fremington, Yelland, Instow, East the Water, and Bideford. It is good news for all those places. While the much-needed work proceeds the real problem is not in the building but in the position that will then arise at already grossly congested Barnstaple.
When I raised the matter previously my hon. and learned Friend the Minister listened intently and, with his accustomed sagacity, commented:
the Government share his view that at the moment his constituency has inadequate transport links with the outside world. In the case of North Devon, that is road works, so there are a number of schemes under way, to several of which he has referred …In this way an adequate route would be provided joining the industrial enterprises at Bideford and Barnstaple down to the M5. 1326 We are also looking at the needs of the Ilfracombe area. They must not be neglected, and that requires improved connections to the motorway.Barnstaple is not solely the responsibility of my Department. Developments there go beyond the trunk road programme. Devon county council has improved proposals in its draft structure plan and its TPP for the provision of an urban relief road. It looks to us as though the county council's proposals will give relief to the town centre and to the long bridge in terms of removing congestion, improving road safety and reducing environmental damage caused by traffic. It will also form a new conection between the North Devon link road and the A361, giving access to other parts of North Devon. Those schemes are being developed by the city council."—that should read ''county council".They will certainly be eligible for grant support by the Government through the system of transport supplementary grant … I hope that I have said enough to indicate that the proposals for Barnstaple are certainly consistent with our view of the transport needs of North Devon."—[Official Report, 26 July 1979; Vol. 971, cc. 1042, 1045–46].My hon. and learned Friend was, and is, correct in those comments.Devon county council has the task of providing the Barnstaple urban relief road. This is not just a relief road for central Barnstaple but is the only possible route for traffic from the M5 or Exeter or Plymouth, and in fact all the routes inward leading towards Barnstaple and our successful Pottington industrial estate, together with the other new industrial complexes—some started and some still on the drawing board—to Braunton, an important holiday area which has recently acquired heavy additional traffic through the most welcome return of the Royal Air Force to Chivenor, and to Ilfracombe, with the Mullacott Cross industrial estate, which is the only major estate left in our reduced North Devon development area.
Ilfracombe town has the highest unemployment anywhere in Devon and depends for its future as a tourist area, a light industrial centre and a shopping centre upon better roads. There are no trains nearer than Barnstaple and the future of the line from there to Exeter is as fragile as British Rail's next budget.
The urban relief road is designed in four stages and has, as an ultimate and very important addition, a bridge downstream of Rolle quay, Barnstaple, and a western link beyond this bridge to the new Barnstaple-Bideford main road. When complete, this final stage will complete the liberation of Barnstaple from through traffic and restore the pleasure of working, shopping and living in this borough, almost the oldest of English boroughs.
When the Devon county structure plan was examined publicly last year, one of the conclusions of the panel was that stage 4 and the downstream bridge to which I have referred should be removed from the structure plan—although the panel agreed that the route itself should be safeguarded against some sadly distant future building programme. The panel's comment was:
The Panel also concluded that although the high cost of the scheme for the Downstream Bridge and Western Link meant that its early construction was unlikely, the scheme was so important to a satisfactory road network for Barnstaple and was so clearly under threat from alternative development that safeguarding of the route…was justified.Our problem is not just that the county scheme needs phase 4 to be effective, although without stage 4 all the traffic crossing Barnstaple from the West—that is, Bideford—to the East—which is towards our Pottington and Mullacott estates—must still thread its way through the town. The problem is that old road construction bogy—that as building of the main link proceeds, for the 1327 motorway to North Devon, we shall have traffic moving swiftly from London or the Midlands up to Barnstaple and then coming to a horrid stop, with a vast tailback if stages 1, 2, and 3 of the road are not complete by then.The lack of stage 4 will in any case mean a continuation of the present year-round heavy traffic, which has already almost shaken to bits older areas, such as Victoria Street and part of Pilton. Only extreme police vigilance, and much public pressing for that, has stopped lorries destroying kerbs and culverts and shaking down chimney pots as drivers seek, quite understandably, to find any alternative route through Barnstaple.
In bringing this matter to the Minister's attention I ask only that he will use his best endeavours to ensure, first, that there is a continuing building or improvement programme for the link road from the M5 by Tiverton on to Barnstaple and on to Bideford. Secondly, I ask that the Minister uses his Department's influence to aid Devon county council in completing at least stages 1, 2 and 3 of the urban relief road to which I have referred before the link road reaches Barnstaple. Without this form of bypass around the town it will be equivalent to landing a Jumbo jet and then using a minibus to empty out its passengers. The time involved, delays and congestion can easily be imagined.
Finally—this is the most important point of all—I ask the Department to press for and not to impede the start of the stage 4 programme of the Downstream Bridge Western link, which is essential to complete the job that the Ministry started so well. Only a few minutes before introducing this debate I received even more representations from individuals. Their message is "We have great respect for the Government and greatly honour them for the fact that they are pressing ahead at a time of financial stringency, whereas successive Governments since the last war have always prevaricated. We take great pride in the fact that the Government have acted steadily and swiftly. They have never acted quite as swiftly as we hoped. However, they have acted as steadily as we perceived."
I look forward, as does the whole of Northern Devon, to my hon. and learned Friend's reply.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Mr. Kenneth Clarke)First, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Devon, North (Mr. Speller) for giving us an opportunity once more to debate the road problems in the area of his constituency. He forcefully and persistently presses upon us the case for road building in Devon.
In the early part of his speech my hon. Friend eloquently described the wider significance of the provision of a modern road network for industry in his area. I repeat the same general undertakings that I gave on a previous occasion. The Government fully recognise the need to improve the road links of North Devon, and through North Devon and North Cornwall the road links with the rest of England. We have a number of important trunk road proposals that we believe in the course of the decade will steadily improve the necessary road communications. I accept entirely what my hon. Friend says about the need to ensure that the county council is able to proceed with the necessary link-ups in Barnstable and elsewhere to make the best use of the new system.
1328 My hon. Friend's first question arose from his desire to ensure that we are continuing to make progress with the trunk road network into his area. We have trunk road proposals for a North Devon link, as it is called, which will provide a new route from the M6 near Taunton through to Barnstable. That in turn will lead to the Barnstable bypass trunk road which will replace the A39 route, which at present goes through the town. That in turn will lead to a Bideford bypass, which will replace the A39 through that town and take traffic away from the ancient Long Bridge.
I am glad to say that that main trunk link is making progress and that progress has been furthered even since the previous debate on these matters. Stage 1 of the North Devon link is from the motorway to Tiverton. I am pleased to say that in October 1980, following the public inquiry, we were able to make the necessary statutory orders to fix the line of the road. We now hope to publish the side road and compulsory purchase orders in a few months' time. The link is on target for a possible construction start in 1982, although that will depend on the availability of resources that we have by that time.
A longer stretch of the North Devon link will be the second stage from Tiverton to Barnstaple. We announced the decisions in October after the public inquiry and we hope to be able to confirm that we shall retain the full North Devon link proposals in our trunk programme. We wish to announce the preferred route for stage 2, which has to be fixed. We hope that the announcement will be made very soon. We hope that it will be possible to do so in the next few weeks if the last few problems in fixing the line can be resolved.
The Barnstaple bypass is geographically the next stage of the main trunk routes in this area. That is at an earlier stage of development. We were able to keep it in the trunk road programme when we published it last year. It is in our reserve schemes for a building date at some time after 1984. The next step will be to appoint consultants to carry out the necessary engineering preparation and design work. That will take place some time later this year.
Beyond that is the Bideford bypass. Line orders were published in 1978 but they never led to a public inquiry. There has been some regrettable delay in making progress with the bypass as a result of continuing controversy about the exact route that it should follow. I must concede that the controversy should have been resolved at an earlier stage. I am now quite determined that we should make progress with the schemes. I hope to make an announcement on the form that that progress will take place in the not too distant future.
That, therefore, is the overall trunk road strategy for the area, but there are some very important link roads, and the Devon county council is, of course, the responsible authority for these local authority roads. It has particular responsibility for the Barnstaple urban relief road which has concerned my hon. Friend this afternoon.
I say at the outset that Devon county council's plans seem to me to fit in extremely well and, as my hon. Friend said, to be a necessary addition to our trunk road proposals. I have been impressed that Devon county council has been planning and making progress with all the improvements to ease the passage of vehicles through Barnstaple and thereby to improve access to Ilfracombe and other holiday areas and to the industrial areas which the local authorities have been promoting, with the help of Government grants.
1329 These road improvements have to be financed by the county council itself, using resources available to it through the transport supplementary grant which my right hon. Friend gives each year, based on the county's own transportation policies and programme. As my hon. Friend knows, the TPP is discussed with my Department each year as a preliminary to determining the allocation of the grant. We have accepted that the council's overall plans for Barnstaple are sensible and realistic. There is no conflict at all between the central Government and local government about the desirability of the Barnstaple urban relief road. The road will be eligible for grant and, no doubt, will obtain grant within the limits of our resources when grant is given each year.
On the other hand, it is not for us in the central Government to say what priority should be given to different local authority road schemes in the county when it draws up its own TPP or to determine how the available block grant for all services should be deployed over the county as a whole. Inevitably, in the present economic climate, the county will have difficulties, just as we have in the central Government, in determining its choice. It would be very much easier for all of us in the road building world if we were not constrained by the present economic situation. Devon county council has to face the same problems as we have, which involve making a realistic assessment of the resources which it is likely to have available for road building in the next few years and then drawing up its own priorities within those resources.
This problem has been raised especially in connection with the Barnstaple urban relief road by the current considerations relating to the Devon structure plan. I know from local press reports that one of the things that have aroused the concern of my hon. Friend and his constituents is that there has apparently been some doubt about stage 4 of the urban relief road arising out of the consideration of the structure plan.
First, let me hasten to say that this does not mean, as it seems that some local people believe, according to press reports, that the Government are insisting that stage 4 should be shelved. There has been no Government decision of that kind. As I say, there is no conflict at all between our aims and the Devon county council's policy. In fact, what has happened is a little more complicated, and I shall briefly describe it.
The recent examination in public of the proposed Devon structure plan has led my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment to indicate that he has it in mind to modify the plan to show a reduction in the resources available for county road schemes during the plan period, which is up to 1991, of some £25 million at 1977 prices. This is not a cut. It is in fact a realistic appraisal of the likely level of resources which will be available for trunk roads. It seems to my right hon. Friend, as, I am sure it seems to all of us, that it is not the best approach to planning to start making over-ambitious plans based on an unrealistic assessment of the resources available. The panel which examined the structure plan has persuaded my right hon. Friend that it was right to expect rather fewer resources than were planned in the period up to 1991, and that has led to the removal of some of the lower priority roads from the structure plan during the planning period up to 1991.
This question of deferring some very desirable schemes because of the limits on resources available faces Devon county council, it faces my right hon. Friend the Secretary 1330 of State for the Environment in assessing all structure plans, and it faces the central Government as a whole. We had to face just the same problem when we were drawing up our 1980 White Paper for the national trunk road programme, and, taking a realistic view of the resources available, we tried to ensure, in drawing up our programme, that it was realistic in resource and planning terms.
In our view, in the past plans for trunk road building at national level and sometimes plans for local authority road building by county councils have been inflated by a desire to avoid disappointing communities which look forward to having roads and have led to over-optimistic estimates of the resources available being made. That in turn has led to over-optimistic assessments of the dates by which particular roads will be built.
In the long run, that does no one any good. From our experience with our trunk roads White Paper, we found that our predecessors put in their trunk roads programme far more roads than could conceivably be built. But in order to please every roads lobby which came to them, they put starting dates on many of the projects which were totally unrealistic. That leads to later Administrations being blamed for delaying things. That is not a proper approach, and in our trunk roads White Paper we have tried to produce a firm programme for the next few years which contains dates that are realistic and can be attained.
I know that that is what Devon county council is doing. That is all that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment is considering when he assesses its structure plan. It makes it much easier for planning in all its forms if the structure plan contains road proposals up to 1991 which are likely to be started during that period. All other aspects of urban planning which depend on the construction of the road will, of course, be much better managed if everyone knows what will happen in the real world.
I understand that Devon county council, which appreciates this problem, is taking a sensible view and is now considering what needs to be done to revise and adjust its programme in the light of changing conditions, as well as the advice that it has received from the panel which undertook the examination in public and the indication which has been given by my right hon. Friend. As I understand it, the problem the council faces is that in any event stage 4 could not start until after the other three stages have been built, and it does not seem likely that they will be completed much before 1991. It would require a very big upsurge in the resources available for road building at the end of the decade for stage 4 to be contemplated at any time before 1991.
Therefore, the decision that it cannot be started within the planned period, and that therefore it should not be contained in the structure plan, does not mean that the stage 4 road has beer. abandoned. The panel suggested that the line of stage 4 should continue to be protected. I am sure that in the light: of the representations coming from my hon. Friend and his constituents, Devon county council will readily accede to that and that the line of the road will be protected so that at some stage, when resources are available, it can be constructed.
I have also been following the discussions which Devon county council now appears to be having about the order in which it will build stages 2 and 3 of the urban relief road. I understand that stage is under construction and that it is now for the county council to debate the order in which 1331 stages 2 and 3 are to be built. I keep using phrases such as "It is my understanding that" because priorities within Devon in regard to local authority roads are entirely a matter for the local authority. It must assess the most urgent needs of its commuity, decide which particular stretches of the urban relief road are needed first, and then come to us with its TPP and apply for grant.
I know that some of what I have said will be of no encouragement to my hon. Friend. However, I shall conclude with what I hope will be the most reassuring part of my remarks. In assessing its priorities and deciding the order in which it will build the urban relief road, as well as the pace at which it can progess, the Devon county council need have no fears that it will be in any way obstructed by our Department. This road is eligible for transport supplementary grant within the limits of the resources available. That will determine the extent and timing of any grant, but certainly its road will obtain grant if Devon county council continues with it.
In so far as it is up to Ministers and their Departments to make any judgments at all in respect of a county 1332 council's or local authority's road building programmes, I must say that these plans seem well judged. They fit in well with our trunk road strategy for the area. They are plans that we wish to go forward, within the limits of our resources.
I know that there is great impatience in North Devon for these roads, but at least the question that remains is when, not whether, they will be built. There is no real doubt about the desirability of the various schemes for improving the infrastructure of the area and for relieving traffic congestion and urban environmental conditions in the towns of Barnstaple and Bideford and villages named by my hon. Friend.
We are, therefore, entirely sympathetic to the idea of the urban relief road. We shall finance it within the limits of the resources available to us. Recent decisions do not indicate any hostility to it on our part. However, unfortunately, as in all these matters, we have to set out a realistic programme for the next few years that faces up to the problems of keeping within a budget which the national economy can afford.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Adjourned accordingly at five minutes to Three o' clock.