HL Deb 02 July 1974 vol 353 cc145-7
LORD NUGENT OF GUILDFORD

My 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 what is their policy with regard to fixing directional signs on the approach roads to motorways, and whether there is a prescribed radius from the entrances for the fixing of those signs.

LORD GARNSWORTHY

My Lords, the policy of the Department of the Environment and their advice to local highway authorities is that routes leading to motorways should be well signed and that the signing may start 10 miles or more from a motorway.

LORD NUGENT OF GUILDFORD

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his informative Answer. Is he aware that, while that is good advice, local highway authorities are not uniform in their observance of it? Is he also aware that it would be greatly for the convenience of individual drivers, both private and freight, if this practice were made uniform? It would also be very greatly for the benefit of road traffic generally if there were uniformity in the fixing of directional signs to motorways at all intersections within a 10-mile radius of motorway junctions, in order to ensure a smooth flow of traffic on to the motorways. Will the noble Lord he good enough to use his influence in asking local highway authorities to implement this advice 100 per cent.?

LORD GARNSWORTHY

My Lords, I am sure the noble Lord appreciates, as the House appreciates, that local authorities being highway authorities have con- siderable discretion in this field. The advice given by the Department is consistent and is the same to all local authorities, although I appreciate that practice varies considerably. I would tell the noble Lord that I have pursued this matter, and I am satisfied that the Department is already doing a very great deal to persuade local authorities to fall into line with the advice that they are given. I certainly give the noble Lord the assurance which he requested in the last part of his remarks.

LORD PLATT

My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that the Automobile Association is extremely helpful in this regard? I have several times notified them of signs which I think are badly placed and which tend to misinform one, and they have always taken up these matters with the local authority.

LORD GARNSWORTHY

My Lords, I am not answerable for the A.A. and I think I ought not to try to hide behind them. The noble Lord's original Question referred to the practice of local authorities and the advice and policy of the Department of the Environment, and I think I have replied fairly fully to it.

LORD SEGAL

My Lords, can my noble friend urge upon local authorities that directional signs should never be erected without clearly giving mileages?

LORD GARNSWORTHY

My Lords, I am advised that this is the practice wherever possible, and where the local authority is agreeable to doing it. But, certainly, I take note of the point raised by my noble friend and will see whether anything can be done.

THE EARL OF ONSLOW

My Lords, can the noble Lord tell us when it is not possible to state the distance from a signpost to a motorway? Surely these are not moving signposts.

LORD GARNSWORTHY

My Lords, I cannot give the noble Earl that information.

LORD SLATER

My Lords, is it not advisable to bring to the notice of the regional engineers, who are responsible for highway development, the observations of the noble Lord who asked the original Question, and leave it to those people to give directions to the highway authorities?

LORD GARNSWORTHY

My Lords, I shall draw the attention of my right honourable friend to what my noble friend has said.

LORD NUGENT OF GUILDFORD

My Lords, may I press the noble Lord one step further? Is he aware—as I am sure he is—that the motorways are the responsibility of the Department of the Environment and that enormous sums of public money are spent in constructing them, so that it is in the general interest that they should be used as much as possible? Does he think it possible that the Department of the Environment might extend their responsibility a little further into the field of the local highway authorities in order to get these directional signs adequately fixed within a 10-mile radius?

LORD GARNSWORTHY

My Lords, I think they might, but I believe that at the present juncture they do not have the power.

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