§ Mr. Pargiterasked the Minister of Transport, in view of the fact that Birmingham Corporation is seeking Government approval for an expenditure of £37 million on major roadworks in the period 1962 to 1966 and that the London County Council wishes to start during the period 1960 to 1965 a programme of major works to cost £17 million, excluding minor schemes, what level of Government grant will be available to assist the works involved.
§ Mr. MarplesThe London County Council and the Birmingham Corporation have very recently put these proposed road schemes to my divisional road engineers, who are considering them. I cannot yet say what the outcome will be.
§ Mr. Pargiterasked the Minister of Transport (1) to what extent he has under consideration the possibility of increasing the scale of assistance to the large cities of the country for urgent road development work of importance to the national road network as a whole;
(2) what information he has with regard to the road improvement programmes of the main cities in England and Wales during the next quinquen- 124W nium; what expenditure is involved per head of the population in each of the cities; and what indication has been given in each case as to the amount of Government grant which will be made available to assist the works programmes.
§ Mr. MarplesThe corporations of our great cities, among others, have been asked to inform me of the schemes they would like to carry out over the next five or six years. I cannot at present say what the scale of Government grants is likely to be.