§ 3. Mr. Hicksasked the Secretary of State for Transport whether he has any plans to increase the level of investment in road construction and improvement in the south-west during the next 12 months; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. ChalkerWe expect to start work later this year on major trunk road schemes costing some £7 million in addition to the £75 million worth of schemes already under construction. Our longer-term programme for the region is substantial, and I expect to add to it following the review that is now in progress. Moreover, in the 1983–84 transport supplementary grant settlement we accepted £46 million for capital investment on local transport in the region, 6 per cent. more than last year's settlement.
§ Mr. HicksI am grateful to my hon. Friend for that information. Is she aware that genuine anxiety is being expressed in Devon and Cornwall about the fact that proposals for major road improvements in respect of the 271 A38 Saltash bypass and the A30 west of Okehampton are for single rather than dual carriageways? Is that not a shortsighted policy, particularly when we recall that it made sense in the early and mid-1970s to have dual carriageways whereas in the early 1980s we merit single carriageways only?
§ Mrs. ChalkerMy hon. Friend must be careful to compare like with like. Wherever it makes sense to build a dual carriageway—for instance, stage I of the north Devon link and appropriate sections of the A30— we shall do so. I appreciate the desire of people in the area to see the highest possible standards provided. However, we must consider that every time we build a dual carriageway we take more farmland than we would if we built a wide single carriageway. We must be able to justify every yard of dual carriageway that we build.