§ Lord Brabazon of Taraasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many new bypasses were started on English trunk roads in each of the last 10 yearsand how many are to be started in the next three years. [HL75]
§ Lord WhittyOn coming into office, the new administration started a roads review which considered all the road schemes in the previous programme that were capable of being started within seven years. This was completed in July last year andA New Deal for Trunk Roads in England set out our strategic programme. This included the Targeted Programme of Improvements. Twenty of the 37 schemes in the Government's Targeted Programme of Improvements will provide bypasses for local communities. Of these, three are schemes that were withdrawn by the previous administration in 1996 and have now been reinstated. The Stonehenge environmental enhancement scheme includes a bypass of Winterbourne Stoke.
In the next three years we plan to start work on 16 of the bypasses.
Starts on the remaining four schemes, including Stonehenge, are subject to the completion of statutory procedures.
In addition, 23 bypass schemes have been referred to be considered by regional planning bodies, local authorities or through roads-based or multi-modal studies. Only two bypass schemes, Salisbury and Hereford, have been cancelled for environmental reasons.
The pattern of bypass starts has fluctuated over the past 10 years. In the early nineties, following a major expansion of the road programme, bypass starts in each year were:
33WA
Year 1989/90 12 1990/91 11 1991/92 18 1992/93 5 1993/94 12 In 1993/94 the last administration began to progressively cut the roads programme and starts fell as follows:
Year 1994/95 4 1995/96 3 1996/97 1 1997/98 2 1998/99 0