HC Deb 27 October 1982 vol 29 c1034
27. Mr. Fry

asked the Secretary of State for Transport what is the current expected completion date for the A1-M1 link.

Mrs. Chalker

Subject to the satisfactory completion of the statutory procedures and the availability of funds, the section from Rothwell to east of Thrapston, including the Kettering southern bypass, should be completed in early 1987; the Catthorpe-Rothwell section and the Kettering northern bypass in late 1987; and the section from east of Thrapston to Brampton in early 1988.

Mr. Fry

I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. Will she take on board the fact that most people who want the road to be built are anxious that it should not be a single carriageway road? In the long run, the right solution for this essential connection between the Al and the M1 is to have a dual carriageway. I hope, therefore, that we shall have a favourable response from my hon. Friend in due course.

Mrs. Chalker

My hon. Friend knows, I think, that since I met the Cambridgeshire county council in May it has done a further traffic count and that we are now reviewing the expected volumes of traffic with the council. If this section is designed as a single carriageway, it will be designed so that a second carriageway may be added later, when that is shown to be necessary.

Mr. Major

When does my hon. Friend expect to make that statement about whether a dual carriageway is justified? Is she aware that in and around the Cambridgeshire area it is feared that if the road is constructed as a single carriageway, an ever-increasing volume of traffic from the east coast ports to the west Midlands will continue to pass through rural villages on roads that were never constructed for and cannot accept traffic of that size and weight?

Mrs. Chalker

I am very sympathetic to what my hon. Friend says, having travelled through some of the villages in his constituency only last Friday. I shall make the announcement as soon as I can, but I regret that it will have to be in the next Session.