§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the (i) areas of outstanding natural beauty and (ii) sites of special scientific interest which lie within the path of currently proposed routes for his Department's road building programme.
§ Mr. ChopeAll trunk road schemes are designed to avoid unnecessary adverse impact on the environment and to maximise the environmental gains which result from new roads. Wherever possible roads are kept away from protected areas such as areas of outstanding natural 417W beauty and sites of special scientific interest, and when there is a risk that a proposed scheme will affect such an area it is examined with particular care to establish that a new road is needed and that the route has been chosen to do as little damage to the environment as practicable. The Nature Conservancy Council and the Countryside Commission are consulted from the earliest stages of route proposals, and measures to mitigate impact or to recreate habitats are agreed with them.
Areas of outstanding natural beauty now cover more than 13 per cent. of the land area of England and Wales and existing trunk roads already run through many of them. Improvements to those routes may affect 12 of the38 areas of outstanding natural beauty. They are:
- Chilterns
- Cotswolds
- Cornwall
- Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs
- Dorset
- Kent Downs
- High Weald
- East Hampshire
- North Downs
- North Wessex Downs
- Surrey Hills
- Sussex Downs
More than 5,300 sites of special scientific interest cover about 7 per cent. of the land area of Great Britain. Currently proposed routes for road improvements have some impact on 27 sites of special scientific interest—0.5per cent. of the total:
- Bingley South Bog
- Boilton Wood
- Chasewater Heath
- Clints Hill
- Coombe Haven (corridor for road reserved at designation)
- Duddon Sands
- Eashing Copse
- Fleam Dyke/Roman Road
- Folkestone and Etchinghill Escarpment
- Folkestone Warren
- Goss Moor
- Hampton Rock Cutting
- Hilton Gravel Pits
- Hindhead Common
- Hook Moor (road verge designated as SSSI)
- Hurcott and Podmore Pools
- New Forest
- Oxleas Wood
- Rainham Marshes
- River Wye
- Roughdown Common
- St. Catherine's Hill
- Snelsmore Common
- Swale
- The Roughs
- Winchester Meadows
- Woolston Eyes
When construction of the A595 Egremont bypass is complete, it is proposed to designate a rocky outcrop exposed by the roadworks as an SSSI. There are other examples of road construction itself leading to the creation of scientifically valuable habitats.