HC Deb 21 June 1967 vol 748 cc284-5W
62. Mr. Kimball

asked the Minister of Transport why the quarterly lists of trunk road and motorway schemes expected to start within the next two years issued in accordance with the Lofthouse Report now show a further slippage in 1966–67 in the implementation of the road programme.

Mr. John Morris

It is not correct to draw any such conclusion from the differences between these lists. The probability of changes in the forecast startingdates of individual road schemes is allowed for in the control of the road programme.

The Lofthouse Report recognised that forecasts of this kind might well need to be changed considerably from one publication to the next but that they would, notwithstanding, provide useful assistance to contractors and others concerned in their long-term planning. The lists themselves pointed out that some timing changes must be regarded as inevitable.