§ Mr. Muddasked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will publish in the Official Report a comparison between the cash budget and the actual cash spent for (a) motorway and trunk road construction, (b) motorway and trunk road
Road construction, improvement and maintenance, Wales £ million cash 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 CENTRAL GOVERNMENT Motorways and Trunk Roads* New construction and improvement 1. Planned expenditure 60 59 62 64 82 94 2. Actual expenditure 59 46 51 63 81 ‡88 3. Shortfall (-)/Excess (+) as percentage of 1 -2% -22% -18% -2% -1% -6% Road maintenance† 1. Planned expenditure 8 8 8 10 11 17 2. Actual expenditure 7 8 12 12 11 ‡20 3. Shortfall (-)/Excess (+) as percentage of 1 -13% — +50% +20% — +18% LOCAL AUTHORITY BIDS New construction and improvement* 1. Planned expenditure 24 28 40 47 54 50 2. Actual expenditure 29 27 34 43 50 ║46 3. Shortfall (-)/Excess (+) as percentage of 1 + 21% -4% -15% -9% -7% -8% Road maintenance† 1. Planned expenditure 36 34 38 44 52 70 2. Actual expenditure 31 37 44 48 53 ¶ 3. Shortfall (-)/Excess (+) as percentage of 1 -14% +9% +16% +9% +2% * Including lighting installation. † Including lighting maintenance, snow clearing and gritting. ‡ Provisional outturn. ║ This represents the Department's estimate of outturn, based on local authority returns. For 1981–82 local authorities were given the freedom to switch capital provision between roads and their other services. ¶ Not yet available. The underspending on trunk road construction in 1981–82 is mainly due to two major bypasses in North Wales being delayed by appeals to the High Court. Lower tender prices were also a factor. The increase in trunk road maintenance is largely due to the unusually severe weather in December and January.
The outturn for expenditure on local authority roads in 1981–82 has not yet been reviewed with the county councils.