HC Deb 15 May 1986 vol 97 cc506-7W
Mr. Sheerman

asked the Secretary of State for Transport if, pursuant to the answer given in the Official Report of 2 May on a specific allocation of resources for small schemes for accident reduction on trunk roads, he will make a statement as to when and why practice in allocating funds for expenditure on small cost-effective engineering schemes on trunk roads changed from that outlined in the answer given to the hon. Member for Beckenham (Sir P. Goodhart) on 25 July 1984, Official Report, column 689.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

The allocation referred to was made in 1984–85 only. Its purpose was to ensure that a minimum of £4.5 million from the regional programme was spent on safety-orientated schemes. The experiment was discontinued because experience showed that in practice the safety schemes bought forward by agent authorities accounted for a much larger share of regional programme funds than that represented by the specific allocations. Such schemes continue to attract a substantial share of the programme.

Forward to