§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Mather.]
11.45 pm§ Mr. David Penhaligon (Truro)It gives me some pleasure to be able to speak on the problems affecting the A30 both on the way to, and within, my county of Cornwall. The Minister is familiar with the argument that I shall present. It is a simple appeal to the Government to rethink their strategy, which appears to be to build the road to wide single-carriage standard.
The A30 is the county's main artery. It enables us to communicate with the economic centres of Britain and Europe. It is incredibly important to those who live in the far south-west that the road should be built to the standard that is common in the rest of the country.
I recognise that progress has been made in the past 20 years in improving Cornwall's communications. My dear father believed that the journey to London was a two-day trip, and even trips through Staines seemed to take an hour or so. We now have a motorway to Exeter. The fact that it goes via Bristol adds 60 miles to the trip, but we make no complaint about that. Furthermore, we have a dual carriageway that terminates about half-way between Okehampton and Exeter. From that point, the route is a mixture of reasonable roads, unsatisfactory roads and— in one or two places—roads which, forming as they do the main artery of my part of the country, can only be described as unbelievable. The A30 has been described as Britain's longest lane. That position should be improved.
Some decisions have been made, and we welcome them. The dual carriageway will be continued from where it currently terminates to a point some five miles on the Cornwall side of Okehampton. However, when I reach that point on my journey home, it is still 65 miles to Truro and 85 miles to Land's End. Most people in the metropolis would regard those distances as substantial journeys, but for those who live in the south-west they represent only the last leg of the journey home.
The proposal seems to be that there should be a single carriageway everywhere else, except for places where a dual carriageway already exists, and short dual carriageways round Blackwater, Jamaica Inn and Long Rock.
The stretches of road that are of special concern are the 12 miles from the end of the dual carriageway at Okehampton to Launceston, eight miles from the Truro side of Launceston to Bolventor and the bypasses around Summercourt, Mitchell, Zelah and Indian Queens — a total distance of 28 miles. Twenty-five per cent. of the total route is still not even on the programme, so we are a long way from an A30 of reasonable standard.
I do not believe that any firm decisions have been made, but I understand that the Government are leaning towards providing a single-carriageway road for that 28-mile stretch. Those who are concerned about Cornwall's economic future can only describe that provision as totally unsatisfactory.
The problem is that we must satisfy the COBA formula — cost benefit analysis. The Minister is a statistician, and by training I am an engineer. I sometimes think that these man-made formulae are elevated to a significance 1028 and importance that they do not justify. Indeed, they sometimes permit decisions to be made that overrule common sense.
Three points are worth raising, and I ask the Minister to investigate whether the present formula is applied correctly.
First, the A30 is the main road to Cornwall. I am sure that that the hon. Member for Cornwall, South-East (Mr. Hicks), who is present for the debate, will confirm that those who live in Liskeard look to the A38 as their route to the county but that everyone else regards the A30 as the ideal way home. That is not surprising. After all, it is 10 miles shorter via the A30 than the A38, and one avoids the inevitable difficulties created by the great city of Plymouth.
The COBA formula underestimates the transfer of traffic that will take place from the A38 to the A30 if that road is built to a satisfactory standard. Indeed, I believe that all the traffic going into Cornwall beyond Liskeard would use the A30, if it were built to a sensible and reasonable standard. I therefore argue that the formula underestimates the extent of the transfer.
Secondly, the formula seems totally to underestimate the importance of the tourist industry. It is true that for eight months of the year, traffic flows into Cornwall are not that high, but for the other four months they are unbelievable. It is preposterous to produce a formula which effectively tells someone jammed in Cornwall traffic in July and August that he should not be concerned because had he come in December he would have experienced no traffic problems at all. These averages are a lunacy.
I concede that for most parts of the country that do not experience these great seasonal traffic changes, the formula may well be sensible, but it does not make much sense in areas such as mine.
Thirdly, in this marvellous formula which has been elevated above all common sense, no consideration appears to have been given to the overall economic impact on the area. Each decision is made relative to how much more quickly people can travel, and there may be a recognition of the environmental impact on a village, but the correct weighting is not given to the overall economic impact.
The Minister does not need me to tell her that Cornwall has its difficulties. It has the lowest average wage of any county in England and easily has the highest unemployment figures in the south-west. Until a few years ago, it had one of the highest unemployment figures an the entire country. Those who live in the far south-west believe that without a modern communications system, there can be no relative increase in Cornwall's prosperity or any relative economic recovery for the county.
As a Member of Parliament, one talks to industrialists who may be flirting with the idea of bringing their enterprises to Cornwall. They have even approached us in the House to get some advice. They are worried most by Cornwall's sheer remoteness.
They do not ask, "How many miles is it?" They keep asking, "How long does it take to get there?" They are not being unreasonable. English Industrial Estates, which is doing good work in the county, will confirm that more industrialists do not come to Cornwall because of the difficulties associated with remoteness than for any other 1029 reason. Indeed, some of the county's own industries, such as farming and china clay, are facing development difficulties for that reason.
Falmouth docks is one of the great natural harbours of Europe, if not the western world. One cannot but believe that its development is stifled—indeed, nearly strangled —because once a ship has docked it is not easy to get anywhere else.
However, the greatest effect is on tourism, which provides 13 per cent. of the employment in my county. Every year, I admire the activities of the AA and RAC, who organise their great campaigns in Devon and Cornwall to tell people to travel via the holiday route. Can hon. Members imagine what effect that has on people who are considering spending a holiday in Cornwall? If the AA and RAC are prepared to go to all that trouble to divert traffic, it is clear that a real problem exists. Many people believe that if the single carriageway is built, the services of the AA and the RAC will still be needed, because we shall still have substantial traffic problems.
This year, the Devon and Cornwall police, who have a good record in community affairs and concern for the well-being of the people who visit my part of the world and of those who live there, gave free coffee to people who got as far as Indian Queens, because they were worried about drivers' fatigue.
How much extra will all this cost? The answer is £15 million. To have a single carriageway will cost a useful sum, and it will cost £15 million extra to build a dual carriageway in the present programme up to 1989. That is £3 million a year. It is about two hours and 51 minutes of the PSBR. It does not sound a very large sum.
If we have dual carriageway standards, the problem will be over. There will be no need to do any more. People say to me, "Well, if the traffic flows later prove it necessary, we could then build a dual carriageway." If single carriageways are built, one fears that they will stay that way, certainly for my lifetime.
The A30 is our strategic road. It is our contact with the economic centres of the nation. As I said before, without this improvement, there can be no relative improvement in Cornwall's economic position. I therefore plead with the Minister to allow common sense to prevail, in preference to this formula. It must surely be common sense to accept that the more remote regions of Britain have as much right as other regions to expect eventually to be connected to the nation's communications by roads built to modern standards.
If the Minister cannot be persuaded to change her mind in the fairly near future, I fear that Cornwall will feel that it is getting second-rate treatment, with second-rate roads to what those of us who live there regard as the finest part of the United Kingdom. Clearly, the decisions are not unchangeable, and I ask, in particular, that the three aspects that I raised be added to the formula. I ask the Minister to promise us to have another think. I would be pleased if she would say that she had already changed her mind, but I should be happy with at least the promise of a rethink.
The Minister can save herself a great deal of work by agreeing with what I have said this evening. The problem will not go away. I suspect that she will have delegations from the county council, the Members of Parliament, the National Farmers Union and businesses in my county. We 1030 believe that we need a dual carriageway. We see that everyone else has one. The simple question, in the final analysis, is: why have the Government decided not to build one for Cornwall, ever? That is the reality of the Government's decision.
§ 12 midnight
§ The Minister of State, Department of Transport (Mrs. Lynda Chalker)There are several Liberal Members present who are obviously taking their holidays in Cornwall and swelling the tourist industry. I congratulate the hon. Member for Truro (Mr. Penhaligon) on securing the Adjournment debate tonight. It is obvious that he has kept his hon. Friends here to enable him to push his case even harder.
I think the hon. Gentleman will acknowledge that in the 22 months since I have been at the Department of Transport I have had more meetings about west country roads and the problems of Devon and Cornwall than about any other area in the country. I am well aware of all that the hon. Gentleman has said, because the issues have been raised on many previous occasions, the latest as recently as last week when Members from a neighbouring county were talking to me about their problems, during which they mentioned the problems connected with roads in Devon and Cornwall.
I welcome the opportunity to discuss the proposed standards for the A30 from Exeter to Penzance. The Department shares the general concern of those in the area that it should have good and adequate roads for the traffic that is to use them. The Cornwall county council and many district and parish councils in the area have joined hon. Members in expressing concern about the sections where it is proposed to make improvements but maintain a single carriageway road.
There is little that I can add to what I have already said over the past 12 months. However, there are one or two remarks that I wish to address to the hon. Gentleman because he may not have personally heard them over recent months, at least not direct from me. First, we recognise the need for good access to Cornwall for industry in Cornwall as well as tourism. That is why the A30 has top priority among west country roads as a road to be improved.
The M4 and M5 provide good communications from Exeter to the rest of the country. The A303 in the southwest has been dualled in many sections and more dualling is planned. That will help in getting to and from Devon and Cornwall. The A38 has been dualled from Exeter to Plymouth and dualling is under construction from the northern outskirts of Plymouth to the Tamar bridge. Proposals have been published for improvement westwards from the bridge through Saltash. As my hon. Friend the Member for Cornwall, South-East (Mr. Hicks) knows, the public inquiry is just starting its deliberations.
Of the 114 miles of the A30 between Exeter and Penzance, one third have already been dualled. I have recently made announcements of decisions concerning the Okehampton bypass and the Tongue End cross to Whiddon down improvement, which is stage 3 of the Exeter-Okehampton improvement. These decisions and other schemes will increase the dualling to almost half of the 114 miles. A further 38 miles are to be improved to wide single carriageway, making over 90 miles of improved 1031 carriageway. These improvements will transform conditions on the A30, as improvements over shorter distances have improved roads in other parts of the country.
Much of what the hon. Gentleman said was not new. I have read Cornwall county council's booklet "Road to Prosperity" and I appreciate the arguments that have been advanced, but the booklet does not reflect the complete picture. There are great benefits to be gained from the current and proposed improvements to the A30 which I think that the hon. Gentleman has underestimated. I think that he is underestimating the proposals that are in hand.
In recent years we have adopted the highway link design of roads, which are especially important in Cornwall's terrain. The old design standards, which I think the hon. Gentleman has in the back of his mind, and which were used in the 1970s, aimed at providing a high standard of service for the driver. They provided continuous opportunities for overtaking. However, on long left-hand bends the practice fell short of the theory. In general the cost was high and the benefit was not always as great as we would have liked. That is why we changed to the highway link design standards in 1981. We wished to provide a good quality driving standard with opportunities for overtaking clearly indicated on a road which was interspaced with somewhat tighter bends where overtaking would be prohibited.
The effect is that a slight drop in driver convenience is very much outweighed by reductions in cost and the impact on the environment. Consequently, we can do more for fewer resources. The hon. Gentleman knows how important I believe it is to give more bypasses to such places as Zelah, Mitchell, Summercourt and Indian Queens. Since that introduction in 1981, not many roads have been finished to highway link design standards. However, as more schemes are completed, the effect of obtaining more suitable roads for our money should be seen.
I want to spend a moment or two on the process of economic evaluation. Cost-benefit analysis is important, but much misunderstood. It is only part of the consideration. It is part of our framework for taking investment decisions, but it does not override our discretion, and I shall not allow it to become a rod for our own backs. It must be common sense to have a consistent basis on which to work, otherwise there would be inequities between different parts of the country.
When we compare on an equivalent basis the costs of the proposal with the benefits in time saved and accidents avoided, we come up with the COBA comparison We convert the time savings and reductions in the number of accidents to financial benefits, using factors which represent reasonable values in, for example, business travel or injury accident. We have to work from averages. We have tried in every way to avoid any subjective bias. We continually carry out research to keep those figures up to date. We can then come to a view on the benefit that will be involved in the case of any particular road, and compare it with the cost. There is nothing mystical about it. It is a process which is updated and which seeks to include all the factors concerned. We have to decide what the positive and negative effects are of undertaking any of the proposed actions.
§ Mr. PenhaligonWill the Minister refer to the COBA formula, which deals with the macroeconomic effects of building high standard roads for the remoter parts of Britain?
§ Mrs. ChalkerThe hon. Gentleman is well aware that time saved by the building of a new road is part of the consideration. But other savings have to be considered. Taking the land that would be needed for the higher standard of road could prove to be a "disbenefit". It may be land that could be better used in a highway link design than in a dual carriageway. Indeed, there is evidence to support that.
The hon. Gentleman got his costs for dualling wrong. Although I accept that he wants the best roads possible for his area, the cost must be considered. They cannot be put completely on one side. Our COBA calculations justify considerable improvement of the A30 in Cornwall. The Department is giving that priority. However, we must not exceed those costs if we are not to deny another area— perhaps even part of the hon. Gentleman's area — another bypass that it needs. Our resources are finite. I have to weigh carefully the claims for increased provision beyond what is absolutely necessary and proven.
If I were to go further, as the hon. Gentleman wishes, and go beyond the COBA analysis and what is justified and provide dual carriageways throughout, despite the fact that there is no traffic need throughout the year, I would deprive other communities in other parts of the country of any form of relief. That would not be fair.
I told the hon. Gentleman that he had underestimated the costs. We propose to spend £50 million on the A30 in Devon, west of Exeter, and £42 million in Cornwall. We are fully justified in doing that to improve 90 miles of that 114 miles of road. I am satisfied that the proposals represent good value for money. All the schemes on our present plans give us a positive return. The hon. Gentleman may ask "Why not spend more?" He mentioned £15 million to dual throughout from Exeter to Penzance— [Interruption.] If the hon. Gentleman did not say that, he certainly mentioned the figure of £15 million as the additional cost. The additional cost is, however, £30 million for the stretch which he would like to be made into dual carriageway, and which the Department proposes to build to wide single carriageway standards.
If we converted those single carriageway schemes to dual, we would be delaying the construction of the bypasses, because it could not be done within the time scale. We would have the further difficulty of justifying the additional land take. We would be open to the ceriticism of taking land out of agricultural use unnecessarily, and that factor has been raised at many public inquiries, particularly in the country areas throughout the land.
§ Mr. Robert Hicks (Cornwall, South-East)Irrespective of the cost comparisons, does my hon. Friend agree that, in the early 1970s, most of the road improvements were on a dual carriageway basis in Devon and Cornwall? As volumes of traffic and projected volumes have increased since then, how does she justify the fact that it was possible to do it then but apparently that is no longer the case? To defend this argument to people who use those roads is an impossibility when a road built in 1984 is single carriageway compared with one that was built as dual carriageway in my constituency in 1974.
§ Mrs. ChalkerMy hon. Friend must realise that the volumes of traffic on the more northerly parts of the southwest peninsula are much higher than beyond Bodmin, and certainly so when one gets past the turnoff to Newquay, because it is at those points that the traffic volumes decrease dramatically from the traffic volumes mentioned by my hon. Friend.
As I have said tonight and on previous occasions, we have dualling around Okehampton in Devon and, indeed, even down beyond Bodmin. This was justified by the traffic volumes. Once the traffic tends to split up at Carland Cross, for instance, at the turnoff for Truro, the traffic volumes do not justify the dualling in the way that my hon. Friend mentioned in the scheme that bypasses Bodmin on the A30. It is the traffic on the road, and how much traffic there is likely to be from developments, that must guide the information put into the formula.
As I said to the hon. Member for Truro, we consider such factors as the amount of tourism and the growth in certain industries. If they were not considered as factors, it would be not a wide single carriageway, but a normal single carriageway that would be proposed. I am convinced from the data that I have seen on the A30 road going down beyond Bodmin that the proposals for that area and, indeed, from Launceston onwards, are right for the road. I do not see that I would be justified in building to a dual carriageway standard a road for which there is not the volume of traffic that there is elsewhere in the country, thus denying to another community a bypass which it very much needs.
Finally, I wish to deal with whether, at a later stage, if the traffic volume justified it, we would be able to provide a dual carriageway. That is always possible, but whether one takes the land now is a very different question. This would have to be justified at public inquiries on the scheme.
1034 Similarly, whether one builds bridges wider now to accommodate a second carriageway later is a very vexed question, and I can only say that the experience of the Department is that it would only be in exceptional circumstances, to overcome specific problems, that one would take to a public inquiry proposals to build bridges substantially wider, and take land substantially in excess of what was needed for the standard that was proposed for the road.
While I am not unsympathetic to the hon. Gentleman, I have to say that, on the evidence before me, I cannot conclude that the Department is being other than wise in seeking to give him the best roads that are justified by the volume of traffic. I want to see the benefits from the improvements come forward as fast as possible. We have already set ourselves a very ambitious task to open up communications from Cornwall with the rest of the country.
I want to make sure that the Member for Yeovil (Mr. Ashdown), for example, gets the bypasses in his county. If we were to provide dual carriageways all the way down through Cornwall, I must tell the hon. Member for Truro that some of his hon. Friends would be disappointed, because we have available only a limited amount of resources.
I assure the hon. Gentleman that if circumstances change to justify a higher standard while we are still at the early stages of preparation for some of the schemes, that higher standard will be adopted. But I remain satisfied that, on the evidence now before us, the plans will give a good return and provide a road which will cater adequately for the traffic which is expected to use it way into the early years of the next century.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Adjourned accordingly at sixteen minutes past Twelve o'clock.