§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will discuss with the Chairman of the National Coal Board the use of spoil heaps to provide hard core for roads, instead of using high-grade limestone for this purpose.
§ Mr. HoramArrangements already exist for discussions to take place with the appropriate authority at local level whenever it appears that waste material from a particular source could be used with advantage in road construction. These arrangements include not only colliery spoil but other industrial wastes.
Provided the Department is satisfied from these discussions that the use of the waste is feasible, contractors are required to submit a tender based on using the waste in addition to tendering on the normal basis. In evaluating the tenders, the environmental and financial implications of accepting a tender based on using the waste are taken into account.
Apart from these special arrangements designed to encourage the use of wastes, tenderers are not precluded from using wastes on trunk road works provided the material concerned meets the requirements of the specification.