§ Mr. Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Transport what is his latest estimate of the total cost of construction of the M25 orbital motorway; if he will express the figures as cost per mile; and whether tolls will be collected on this stretch of road other than those on the Dartford tunnel.
§ Mrs. ChalkerThe latest estimate of the total cost is £909 million. We have no plans to toll the M25.
To be meaningful, a cost per mile figure would have to be at constant prices on the amount of expenditure incurred in any one year and price movements. But our central records of past spending on the many contracts for the road do not distinguish between years earlier than 1982–83. I regret that a manual search of the contract files to obtain such information would be disproportionately expensive and time-consuming.