HL Deb 19 April 1975 vol 360 cc1015-7

2.48 p.m.

Earl ST. ALDWYN

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 whether they propose to extend the M40 Motorway in an easterly direction to link up with the A40(M) at the White City and, if so, when and how.

The PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-ECRETARY of STATE, DEPARTMENT of the ENVIRONMENT (Baroness Birk)

My Lords, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Environment has no proposals to construct such an extension.

Earl ST. ALDWYN

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for that reply, which I must admit I find rather depressing. May I ask whether it is because the Government are curtailing some Government expenditure on the project, or because there are no plans at all for joining these two portions of a very expensive motorway?

Baroness BIRK

My Lords, it is due to the fact that the Government have no plans. They are not curtailing expenditure on this stretch of road, because there were no plans to extend it into a motorway. This is due to the high cost and environmental damage—which would include loss of houses—of converting the route into a motorway and building a motorway relief road. This would be entirely unacceptable to the Government.

Earl ST. ALDWYN

My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that considerable inconvenience has already been caused to a large number of people in making the flyover from Edgware to the White City? Why, because a few more houses have to be demolished, is it unacceptable to proceed with this road? There is plenty of room for the motorway alongside most of the A40.

Baroness BIRK

My Lords, I have great sympathy with the noble Earl, because I use that part of the road myself and know what he means about the holdups. But while it is the Government's aim to continue the progressive improvement of the existing dual carriageways, which will make this length of the A40 a high-class all-purpose road, by modifying the junctions where long delays are experienced, this will necessitate flyovers and underpasses. But I must stress again, with great respect to the noble Earl, that to make it into a motorway means doing away with not only a few houses but with a great deal of residential property and densely-populated commercial property. It is a major operation, because improvements in four places alone will cost £16 million, plus the environmental damage. This really makes the project quite inconceivable for consideration at the present time.

Lord CARRINGTON

My Lords, would the noble Baroness consider, when further motorways are built out of towns, improving at the same time the existing roads so that one does not get the bottlenecks that one gets on the existing A40?

Baroness BIRK

My Lords, the whole purpose of improving the existing dual carriageway is to help the existing road.

Lord CARRINGTON

Too late, my Lords!

Baroness BIRK

It has not yet been done, but it is now being done. I will certainly bring what has been said to the notice of all the transport powers-that-be. I must stress again that it is feasible to improve the dual carriageways but not to extend them to a motorway.

The Earl of KIMBERLEY

My Lords, may I ask the noble Baroness whether she realises that on the 11.3 miles between the end of the M40 and the start of the M41 there are four roundabouts, eight sets of traffic lights and crossroads—not all them major crossroads—and two sets of pedestrian lights? Would it be possible for the two sets of pedestrian lights to be done away with and replaced by two footbridges?

Baroness BIRK

My Lords, I have noticed those things myself; I have even counted them. However, these are the plans which are starting. I do not want to detain the House unduly at the moment, and if the noble Earl wishes me to do so I will write to him with full details. The work will start in 1977 and will go on in stages.

Viscount ST. DAVIDS

My Lords, will the noble Baroness congratulate her right honourable friend on not spending, for once, a large sum of money? If the Government happen to have two pennies to rub together, could they not possibly be put to better use by lending them to the small farmers?