§ Mr. SpellerTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what conditions he will require to be fulfilled in order to provide funding to dual the North Devon link road from Tiverton to Barnstaple.
§ Mr. AtkinsI am satisfied that the present single carriageway road will be adequate for a long time to come. Predictions prepared using the Department's recently published national road traffic forecasts indicate that it will be many years before the economic benefits of dualling, calculated using our standard 30-year assessment period, would exceed the cost of such improvement. The economic assessment takes into account reductions in accidents and the benefits of reduced congestion.