§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement listing the money his Department has contributed to road schemes in the Chelmsford local authority area in each of the financial years since 1979–80; and what are his forward plans for the next three years.
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§ Mr. ChopeMy Department pays 50 per cent. transport supplementary grant towards accepted expenditure on local authority road schemes.
Before 1985–86 TSG was a general grant and not linked to individual projects. Under the present system, expenditure on specified major road schemes may be accepted for grant. Since 1985–86, accepted expenditure for such schemes in the Chelmsford borough council area has been as follows:
£ million 1985–86 5.279 1986–87 7.167 1987–88 6.335 1988–89 5.846 1989–90 5.835 1990–91 2.189 A further £0.506 million expenditure on major schemes in the Chelmsford area has been accepted for TSG in 1991–92. This is less than in previous years because a number of schemes have been completed. Allocations for future years will be decided in the light of information in the county's annual transport policies and programme submissions and other competing bids.
Block TSG allocations have also been given for expenditure on minor works in the county as a whole, but it is for the county council to decide how much to spend in each district council's area.
In addition, the Department has spent over £36 million since 1979 on improving its own A12 trunk road through the district, including the following amounts on the Chelmsford bypass:
£ million 1984–85 5.978 1985–86 15.457 1986–87 11.111 1987–88 1.804 1988–89 1.218 1989–90 0.489 The next major trunk road schemes in the area will be the construction of part of the new M12 from the M25 and the widening of the Chelmsford bypass, but only relatively minor sums will be spent on the design and preparation of these proposals over the next two or three years.