§ 5. Mr. Ian Bruce:To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans his Department has to improve north-south road links in Dorset.
§ Mr. Kenneth CarlisleThe national trunk road programme includes two schemes—the A31 to Mannings Heath relief road and the Poole harbour bridge replacement—which, together with trunking an existing section of road, will provide a high-standard trunk road between the A31 and Poole.
Other north-south roads in Dorset are the responsibility of Dorset county council. We support the council's improvement programme through transport supplementary grant, where justified.
§ Mr. BruceSurely my hon. Friend knows that the schemes to which he referred amount to approximately a couple of miles, linking in with the east-west routes from the ports, and that they make no difference to the north-south link. My hon. Friend will remember that when he was Under-Secretary of State for Defence Procurement at the Ministry of Defence he turned down the co-location of Sea Systems Controller in Weymouth, mainly because of the terrible north-south road link between there and Bristol. The roads have not changed. I wonder whether my hon. Friend will use the vigour that he showed in the Ministry of Defence to make sure that he shakes up the Department of Transport and puts real north-south trunk roads into Dorset?
§ Mr. CarlisleWhen I was at the Ministry of Defence, my hon. Friend dogged me with his zeal to relocate Ministry of Defence establishments in south Dorset. I can assure him that the fact that his request did not succeed was not because of road links. Nevertheless, I am sure that he will be just as passionate about road links to Dorset, as he has no doubt hammered every single Under-Secretary of State on these matters on behalf of his constituents. The 569 Government have not done too badly by Dorset. A major link between the A31 and Poole is in the programme. Four other north-south schemes are also in the programme and are supported by us to the tune of about £30 million. It might be worth mentioning, as evidence of our support for Dorset, that in the past 10 years eight bypasses have been built in Dorset, two are now under construction and an additional 15 are in the programme, so Dorset is doing very well by the Department of Transport.