§ 2.40 p.m.
§ LORD WOLVERTONMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government how much capital work which has actually been started and which costs £25,000 or over is being carried out on trunk and principal roads in East Anglia.]
§ LORD WINTERBOTTOMMy Lords, in the five counties of the East Anglia Economic Planning Region (Norfolk, East Suffolk, West Suffolk, Cambridge-shire and Isle of Ely, Huntingdon and Peterborough) construction is in progress on 15 trunk road schemes costing 802 £1,809,031 and on 17 principal road schemes costing £1,484,072, towards which grants totalling £1,121,070 have been made.
§ LORD WOLVERTONMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his reply. Arising from that, may I ask whether the noble Lord does not think that the sum of money he has just quoted is quite inadequate in an area of great expansion, especially for the East Coast ports and the roads leading to them from the Midlands?
§ LORD WINTERBOTTOMMy Lords, we should all like to spend more money on roads throughout the country, but East Anglia's share does not in fact compare unfavorably with those for other areas of a similiar nature. The same standards are applied to determine the proper priority of all schemes up and down the country, and East Anglia receives its share of available funds on the same basis as other development areas.
§ LORD BELSTEADMy Lords, is the noble Lord aware that part of the figure which the noble Lord has giver is in respect of a mere two miles of dual-carriageway on the A45 road running across East Anglia? This road carries traffic to and from the ports of Ipswich, Felix-stowe and Harwich from and to the Midlands and the North, and in a total length throughout the whole of East Anglia of about 70 miles this road has hitherto had a mere one mile of dual-carriageway. Can the noble Lord now tell the House what plans the Government have to improve a road so vital to our export trade, to East Anglia generally and to road safety in particular?
§ LORD WINTERBOTTOMMy Lords, this is a wide question. The subject of regional development is of great interest, and I suggest that a debate on the recently published East Anglia Development Plan might be of value to the House. I myself took part in a debate on the development of Humberside.