§ Mr. Moateasked the Secretary of State for Transport if it is still the policy of the Government to give priority in the road construction programme to the bypassing of towns and villages and to routes to the ports; if he will publish the figures showing the amount of expenditure on such roads in recent years and the amount scheduled for the next three years; and if he will compare these figures with total new road expenditure.
§ Mr. William RodgersYes. Paragraph 33 of "Policy for Roads: England 1978"—Cmnd. 7132—states
Priority will go to vital industrial routes, and to routes to ports; and to dealing with those parts of the trunk road network where the problems of congestion and environmental damage are most severe.Many such schemes involve bypasses to towns and villages. I regret that figures are not readily available in the form requested, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.