§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Wales how much money Welsh district councils have received for housing for each financial year from 1974 onwards.
§ Mr. Wyn RobertsThe Welsh Office has paid the following sums of money, by way of council house subsidies—excluding rent rebates—to district councils in Wales:
underground services, as described in paragraphs 17, 18 and 19 of his departmental note on heavy lorries, if lorry weights are increased without any commensurate reduction in the size of the lorry fleet.
§ Mr. David HowellThe increases in maximum gross weights for lorries proposed in the Government's White Paper would in themselves have no significant effects on underground services. There is no evidence that heavy traffic is primarily responsible for damage to underground services. At any given level of economic activity, there will be a smaller heavy vehicle fleet and a smaller total axle loading than would be the case if maximum weights remain unchanged.
§ Mr. Moateasked the Secretary of State for Transport if in calculating the saving of £150 million which could be achieved under his proposals for heavier lorries, any account has been taken of any Government expenditure on roads and bridges.
§ Mr. David HowellThe estimated savings of around £150 million per year relate solely to transport operating costs. Heavier lorries should lead to a reduction of about 5 per cent. in road damage from heavy articulated road transport and there will be no significant additional effect on bridges with spans of less than about 75 metres. Longer span structures will be examined individually to see what may need to be done to ensure that they can be used safely by all lorries, including those of 40 tonnes.
§ Mr. Moateasked the Secretary of State for Transport how many road bridges over British Rail lines have been designated as having a weight limit per lorry of 32 tonnes; what advice he has received from British Railways about the cost of strengthening these bridges if lorry weights are increased; what steps are being taken to check all these structures; and at what cost.
§ Mr. David HowellI shall answer this question shortly.
§ Mr. Moateasked the Secretary of State for Transport if his heavier lorry proposals would allow all existing low axle lorries currently limited to 32.52 tonnes to be increased to 34 tonnes without alteration; and what would be the additional track cost of such an increase if applied to all such vehicles.
§ Mr. David HowellTechnically suitable motor vehicles first used after 1 April 1973, with a design train weight of 34 tonnes or higher, could be operated at 34 tonnes with a suitable two-axle trailer. The share of total 245W track costs allocated to such a vehicle would be about 12 per cent more than that allocated to a 32.5 tonne four-axle vehicle, assuming the same average mileage and load factor for the two classes of vehicle. For the reasons set out in my Department's published note on the effects of increasing lorry weights, 34-tonne vehicles are likely to represent only about 10 per cent. of the national fleet of vehicles of 32.5 tonnes and the higher weights up to 40 tonnes now proposed. The overall effect of the proposal would be to reduce road damage by about 5 per cent. thus having a favourable effect on total track costs in the longer term.
§ Mr. Moateasked the Secretary of State for Transport what will be the cost of assessing individually the 200 trunk road bridges, indicated in paragraph 22 of his departmental note circulated with the draft regulations on heavier lorries, in order to test their ability to withstand the possible 14 per cent. greater loading resulting from his heavier lorry proposals.
§ Mr. David HowellThe 200 trunk road bridges are of various forms of construction and degrees of complexity.
Until each bridge has been examined to see what detailed assessment work is required it is not possible to say what costs may arise. They are not expected to be large in relation to the £150 million a year savings in industry's transport costs resulting from the introduction of the heavier lorries, and they will be spread over a number of years.
§ Mr. Moateasked the Secretary of State for Transport how many bridges come within the range of 2 metres to 75 metres loaded length as described in his departmental note circulated with his draft heavy lorry regulations; what study has been undertaken of all such bridges; and how many will require strengthening to cope with heavier lorries.
§ Mr. David HowellThe vast majority of the road bridges—about 155,000—in Great Britain are within this range. On trunk roads, including motorways, in England there are about 9,600 such bridges.
The effects of axles, groups of axles, and vehicles, both singly and in combination, have been compared for the proposed heavier lorries and those permitted by the current construction and use regulations. The results of the comparison are reported in paragraph 21 of the departmental note. No strenghtening on account of the heavier lorry weights now proposed by the Government is envisaged for bridges with loaded lengths 2 to 75 metres.