§ Mr. David PorterTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement listing the money his Department has contributed to road schemes in Waveney for each of the past 10 years; and what are his forward plans on spending for the next three years.
§ Mr. ChopeMy Department pays 50 per cent. transport supplementary grant—TSG—towards accepted expenditure on local authority road schemes.
Before 1985–86 transport supplementary grant was a general grant and not linked to individual projects. Under the present system, expenditure on specified major road schemes may be accepted for grant. Since 1985–86 accepted expenditure for such schemes in the Waveney district council area has been as follows:
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£ million 1985–86 Nil 1986–87 Nil 1987–88 0.385 1988–89 3.360 1989–90 1.582 1990–91 1.532 1991–92 6.741 Block transport supplementary grant allocations are also given for expenditure on minor works in the county as a whole, but it is for the county council to decide how much to spend in each district council's area.
I cannot say exactly how much expenditure in any county or district area will be accepted for transport supplementary grant in future years as this is decided in the light of information in highway authorities' annual transport policies and programme submissions. However on the basis of forecasts in Suffolk's last submission accepted expenditure on the Mutford Bridge scheme in Lowestoft, for which the works contract was recently let, will be £1.775 million in 1992–93 and £0.075 million in 1993–94.
In addition, the Department has carried out a number of minor improvement schemes on the A12 in the Lowestoft area.