Road Schemes: Assessment Criteria (Hansard, 24 June 1997)

§ Baroness Hayman
My Lords, the strategic roads review announced last week will be a broadly based exercise and will assess road schemes against the four criteria set out in our manifesto; namely, accessibility, safety, economy and environmental impact.

§ Lord Berkeley
My Lords, I declare an interest as chairman of the Rail Freight Group. Will the Government 1468 take into consideration the criteria of not building roads but encouraging people to use public transport—for example, bus or train—and encouraging freight by rail?

§ Baroness Hayman
My Lords, what we are intent on doing in the White Paper on an integrated transport policy which we are committed to produce next spring is to look broadly at all the options, to look at the problems which have arisen with particular schemes and to consider solutions which might comprise using another form of transport or managing demand rather than building roads.

Lord Campbell of Croy
My Lords, as the Departments of the Environment and of Transport and their predecessors have not been responsible for roads in Scotland for at least 40 years, does the Answer of the noble Baroness confine itself to England and Wales? Does she accept that different criteria apply in Scotland, where distances between towns are long and where the land in between can be barren heath?

§ Baroness Hayman
My Lords, the necessity for considering these issues in a Scottish context was recognised by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Scotland, who made a parallel announcement of a strategic roads review in Scotland.

§ Lord Stoddart of Swindon
My Lords, in conducting this review, will the Government consult Railtrack about the possibility of building new railway lines and reopening branch lines?

§ Baroness Hayman
My Lords, we certainly intend that the review and the White Paper will be an open and consultative exercise. I expect that we shall receive representations from a wide variety of interests. This is an area where there are competing and often conflicting pressures. It is important that we listen to the widest range of views and consider the widest range of possible solutions.

Lord Renton
My Lords, will the Minister bear in mind that in Scotland public transport is not available to people living in many of the remote places and that it is often a necessity in their case to improve roads?

§ Baroness Hayman
My Lords, while I accept the failings of public transport in Scotland and in some parts of England and Wales too, we have to bear in mind that the solution may be to improve public transport rather than to assume that the only answer is to provide an alternative to public transport.

§ Lord Peyton of Yeovil
My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware of the almost uncontrollable excitement which we all feel at the prospect of this new White Paper which is to produce an integrated system of transport? So far, many governments have found this to be a pipe dream.

§ Baroness Hayman
My Lords, I am delighted that there is such anticipation on Opposition Benches and elsewhere. It would be wrong to suggest that this will be an easy exercise or that there are simple solutions. On the 1469 other hand, it would be equally wrong not to try to find those solutions, because an enormous number of pressures, both economic and environmental, indicate that we have to find some answers.

§ Lord Monson
My Lords, is the Minister aware that a great many people are anxious that minor road schemes should proceed? They can be extremely effective in reducing casualties among both motorists and pedestrians.

§ Baroness Hayman
My Lords, we accept that fact. The minor safety schemes which were in the Highways Agency's programme were specifically exempted from the review and will go ahead according to the programme.

§ Lord Brabazon of Tara
My Lords, does the Minister agree that, however successful the Government are in encouraging both freight and passenger traffic on to rail and other forms of public transport, the vast majority of traffic will still be by road for purely practical reasons? Therefore I hope that the noble Baroness will agree that to freeze the road programme altogether, in particular the construction of bypasses and motorway widening, would be to condemn the country to gridlock.

§ Baroness Hayman
My Lords, we have not frozen the roads programme altogether. Roads under construction continue to be constructed. We have recognised that 12 schemes are in urgent need of review. We are having an accelerated review of them and will announce the results before the end of July. However, the noble Lord should not prejudge the results of the White Paper exercise about an integrated transport policy.

§ Lord Dixon-Smith
My Lords, does the noble Baroness agree that, in the light of the contention about the high speed link to the Channel Tunnel, proposals to expand the railway system are likely to prove at least as contentious as the proposals to build new roads, if not more so?

§ Baroness Hayman
My Lords, I accept that what the noble Lord says is correct: there are no easy answers to these problems. There are costs to all the alternatives on offer. What is important is that we have a wide-ranging, open and honest public debate about the cost and benefits of various alternative ways of approaching the problems.

Earl Attlee
My Lords, will the review take into account the possibilities arising from road pricing?

§ Baroness Hayman
My Lords, yes.

§ Lord Palmer
My Lords, does the Minister agree that it is high time that there was a continual dual carriageway from the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, to the capital of the north of England, Newcastle?

§ Baroness Hayman
My Lords, in view of what I said about the need for careful assessment of 1470 individual schemes, it would be wrong for me to prejudge the results of the review in the case of individual schemes.