§ Mr. Watkinsasked the Minister of Transport whether he will indicate the additional number of each type of machine to be made available to the appropriate authorities in Wales and Monmouthshire to deal with falls of snow, as recently announced by him for roads.
§ Mr. MarplesThe number of additional vehicles finally to be allocated to each agent authority will depend on completion of a detailed review of the needs of the trunk roads on which I aim to improve the service. I am covering the most important 4,000 of the 6,400 miles of the trunk road system in England and Wales. About 500 miles of the trunk roads in Wales and 17W Monmouthshire are included in the plan. The programme will necessarily be phased over a number of years and will be subject to review in the light of experience, but on the basis that there will be one vehicle every ten miles or so, I expectthat we shall allocate up to 50 vehicles to Wales and Monmouthshire within the next five years. Most of these will be 5½ ton salting/gritting machines capable of dealing with moderate falls of snow but some will be of the 11½ ton motorway type to cope with heavy snow.