§ Baroness Faithfullasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether in the light of many representations made to the Department of Transport since 1990 remedial action will be taken to reduce the noise levels of the concrete section of the A.34 road between Peartree 7WA roundabout and Weston on-the-Green and thereby relieve the 4,000 inhabitants of the seven affected villages.
§ Viscount GoschenWe do sympathise with those subjected to noise intrusion from whatever source, but there is no acceptable basis on which we could undertake additional noise amelioration measures along the section of the A.34 between Peartree Hill and Wendlebury.
The concrete surface of this road complied with the design criteria prevailing at the time of its construction. The Department of Transport also complied fully with the requirements of the Land Compensation Act 1973 and associated regulations, in terms of mitigation measures and the payment of compensation relating to noise intrusion and other physical factors emanating from the use of the road. We have considered very carefully whether there was anything else we could do, but all options within existing legislation have now been exhausted. We could not, of course, resurface at taxpayers' expense a perfectly good road for other than genuine maintenance reasons.