Bury St. Edmunds

HC Deb 23 April 1975 vol 890 cc310-1W

Mr. Eldon Griffiths

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will publish those estimates of traffic movements and prospective costs benefits in the speed of passage of vehicles and of road safety that led him to approve the request by the Suffolk County Council of a sum of money to build the proposed Parkway inner relief road for Bury St. Edmunds in the period 1975–76;

(2) whether, in the light of the diversion of heavy east-west traffic from its previous routes through Bury St. Edmunds to the recently opened bypass, he will re-examine the cost benefits expected to be gained from constructing the Parkway inner relief road in the year 1975–76 and publish the relevant estimates of traffic flows and costs in the Official Report

Mr. Mulley

Two-way traffic flow for the morning peak hour in 1976 is estimated to be in the region of 2,600 vehicles. The justification for the Parkway scheme depends more on its relationship to the town's expansion and redevelopment proposals than any cost benefit evaluation. Any re-examination of the cost benefits would be a matter for Suffolk County Council as highway authority. The council must, however, be prepared to justify the parkway proposals at a public inquiry into the compulsory purchase order which will probably be held within the next two or three months.

Mr. Eldon Griffiths

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what relative priority he Places on the following proposals for trunk road improvements in the Bury St. Edmunds area; Parkway inner relief scheme, Ixworth bypass and improvements to the highway running through the High Point prison at Stradis-hall.

Mr. Mulley

As these three schemes are principal road improvements the relative priority is in the first instance a matter for the Suffolk County Council as highway and traffic authority.

Mr. Eldon Griffiths

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he has made of the benefits to Bury St. Edmunds in terms of reduced flows of traffic, especially heavy vehicles, through the town centre, and the reduction of congestion and road safety hazards as a result of the diversion of A45 traffic to the Bury St. Edmunds bypass.

Mr. Mulley

This is a matter for the local highway and traffic authority. It is understood that the natural increase in town traffic flows has overtaken the reduction which followed the opening of the bypass and congestion still occurs.