Roads (Hansard, 2 May 1990)

§ 9. Mr. Kirkwood
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he has any plans to meet roads authorities involved in the areas covered by the routes south of Edinburgh road study to discuss the Government's recent announcement on the study's conclusions.

§ Lord James Douglas-Hamilton
Yes. Scottish Development Department officials will meet the local roads authorities to be involved in the A1 steering group and each relevant authority in respect of the route action plans for the A1 and the A7 south of Hawick, and for various accident remedial programmes.

§ Mr. Kirkwood
In meetings held in future to discuss routes south of Edinburgh, will the Government bear in mind the anger and frustration felt in the Borders about the inadequacy of the Government's plans for routes south of the Borders? In relation to the A7 south of Hawick, will the Minister confirm that the only schemes now in prospect are all cash limited to a cost of less than £1 million? If that is all that is in prospect, does the Minister accept that the road will never be brought up to a tolerable standard? Will he give an undertaking that there will be a single dual carriageway built to highway-link design standards along the entire length of the A7 between Hawick and Carlisle within the foreseeable future?

§ Lord James Douglas-Hamilton
I should not go as far as the hon. Gentleman in regard to a dual carriageway, because that depends on the amount of traffic usage. In the light of the importance of the A7 to the local economy south of Hawick, we intend to commission the regional councils to develop a programme of improvement. The hon. Gentleman's points will be examined. A bypass for Langholm is already in the trunk road programme. The necessary preparatory work and statutory procedures are planned to be complete by the mid-1990s. Indeed, my hon. Friend the Member for Dumries (Sir H. Monro) supports that. I should also mention that improvements to the A7 south of Hawick will continue to be made to achieve specific local objectives. They will include accident remedial programmes and smaller improvement schemes where appropriate. So action will be taken.

§ Mr. Ron Brown
If all roads lead to Westminster, is not it clear that along those routes, regarding the poll tax, we shall see slogans such as "don't pay, don't collect"? It is not the official leadership who turned the "stop it" campaign into a "pay it" campaign who matter; it is the anti-poll tax movement, Committee 100 and others, who rightly said that this is a civil law which should he resisted as a matter of right. Obviously—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. The hon. Member's question is a bit wide of roads.

§ Mr. Brown
So people power is important; again it has forced the Prime Minister to think again on her hated tax.

§ Mr. Speaker
Order.

§ Lord James Douglas-Hamilton
I always knew that the hon. Gentleman had remarkable ingenuity, but I did not think that he would wish the road tax to be increased to pay the community charge.

§ Sir Hector Monro
May I thank my hon. Friend for his announcement about the road south of Hawick? May I impress upon him the fact that because of the amount of traffic, both from the Borders woollen trade into the north of England and from the tourist industry in the south of Scotland, it is very important that the road is upgraded and particularly that the accident black spots are removed as soon as possible?

§ Lord James Douglas-Hamilton
We shall certainly keep those points very much in mind, which is why we are commissioning the regional councils to develop a programme of improvements. I hope that that will help.