§ Mr. Holtasked the Minister of Transport if he will state the grounds on which he decided to allocate only £1 million to Lancashire out of a total of £68 millions for the whole country in his three-year classified road programme announced in April this year, in view of the fact that Lancashire accounts for nearly 10 per cent. of the United Kingdom population.
§ Mr. MarplesThe three-year classified road programme is being concentrated mainly on the relief of urban congestion and consequently most of the funds will be spent in London, the major conurbations and the large County Boroughs. In addition to the schemes amounting to £1 million in grant value in the administrative county, the programme includes schemes to the value of nearly £4 million in the County Boroughs in Lancashire, and I have still to select schemes for 1962–63 and 1963–64 within the South East Lancashire conurbation.
Lancashire has, in recent years, had a large share of the total provision for new road construction and will continue to do so for the next few years.