§ 10. Mr. DevlinTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans he has to upgrade the A66.
§ Mr. KeyThere are nine schemes in the road programme to improve the A66, with an estimated value of £40 million.
§ Mr. DevlinI thank my hon. Friend for that reply and also for the replies to my written questions showing that more than half the movements along the A66 are those of commercial traffic. Is he aware of the high priority that is attached to the modernisation and improvement of the A66 trans-Pennine route by the Teesside chamber of commerce and other commercial organisations in the north-east of England, which regard it as one of the components of enormous economic expansion in the future? In that light, will he give the further improvement of the road his greater consideration in the future?
§ Mr. KeyI am second to none in my admiration for the progress on Teesside and my hon. Friend has kept me well 9 informed of that and lobbied hard on behalf of the business community in his constituency. There is, however, another side to the argument. From my position, with a national perspective, I have also to bear in mind the pressures from elsewhere in the north—for example, to upgrade the A69.