HC Deb 16 December 1997 vol 303 cc121-2
31. Mr. Laurence Robertson

What is his Department's policy towards the maintenance of bridges and trunk roads; and if he will make a statement. [19426]

Dr. Strang

Our priority is to maintain public safety through a cost-effective programme of capital maintenance, to provide an effective, reliable and environmentally acceptable trunk road network.

Later this afternoon, my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister will be announcing the Department's spending plans for next year. They will include a substantial increase in money available for the maintenance of the trunk road network.

Mr. Robertson

I remind the Minister that it is extremely important to maintain bridges. I understand that Gloucestershire is bidding for help to strengthen its bridges and that failure to provide such help will lead to the imposition of weight restrictions and great disruption, not only around those areas but to the local economies. Will the right hon. Gentleman take that into account?

Dr. Strang

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. As he is aware, we are due to accept the heavier lorries on 1 January 1999, so it is vital that the bridges are up to strength. I can assure him that the Government are determined to achieve that for the bridges on the trunk road network.

Mr. Hope

Is my right hon. Friend aware that the national road condition survey showed a deterioration in the condition of motorways and trunk roads in 1996? Does he agree that his Tory predecessors failed to give sufficient priority to expenditure to maintain the condition of the motorway and trunk road network?

Dr. Strang

Yes, I agree absolutely with my hon. Friend and I am grateful to him for raising that. We inherited a neglected maintenance programme and we are putting that right. Conservative Members must understand that the neglect of road maintenance means that in the long run more money is paid out because one has to pay for the corrective work and for the overall maintenance as well.

Mr. Chope

The right hon. Gentleman is not right to say that road maintenance was neglected by the previous Government. At the beginning of this year, a report confirmed that the condition of the road network had improved significantly under the Conservative Government. Where is the right hon. Gentleman getting the extra money to invest further in road maintenance? Is it at the expense of other Department of Transport programmes? He has made much of the fact that he inherited a budget from the previous Government which gives him no flexibility, but he seems by his announcement to be saying that he has found some flexibility. I should like to know at whose expense.

Dr. Strang

I hope that the hon. Gentleman understands that our approach is no longer automatically to build new roads. The challenge is to use our existing road space and road network more effectively. That is why we are determined to improve maintenance.

With regard to the hon. Gentleman's first point, I suggest that he reads the evidence given to the Select Committee about a year ago, when the then Minister for Railways and Roads admitted that the Government were failing to maintain the trunk road network adequately and, furthermore, that the Government had failed to provide adequate money for the maintenance of the network. That is why we have so substantially increased it, as the hon. Gentleman will see later this afternoon.