§ Mr. SandersTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list (1) the 10 largest conurbations in England not linked to the trunk road network; [117596]
(2) the criteria used for determining which roads are (a) trunked and (b) de-trunked; and if he will make a statement. [117597]
§ Mr. HillThe trunk road network constituting a national system of routes for through traffic was defined under the Trunk Roads Acts of 1936 and 1946. The network has altered over the years as new roads, including motorways, have superseded parts of the network which have in consequence been de-trunked. The Secretary of State is required to keep the trunk road network under review. In developing our integrated transport policies set out in the White Paper "A New Deal For Transport" (Cm 3950) we concluded that there were a number of existing trunk roads which mainly served local and regional traffic, that would be more appropriately managed by the local highway authorities to ensure integrated local transport and land use planning. We identified a core network of nationally important trunk roads in England taking the following factors into account
linking main centres of population and economic activity;accessing major ports, airports and rail intermodal terminals;joining peripheral regions to the centre;providing key cross-border links to Scotland and Wales;classification as part of the UK Trans-European Road Network.It is considered that this core network serves to provide for the needs of through traffic to all significant urban areas in England. It is proposed to de-trunk the non-core routes.
The 10 largest urban areas by population that are presently more than three miles distant from a trunk road are listed in the table.
Urban area Population (1991 census) 1. Bournemouth 358,321 2. Southend 266,749 3. Aldershot 231,194 4. Mansfield 154,966 5. Thanet 116,745 6. Basildon 102,913 7. Torbay 102,576 8. Hartlepool 87,310 9. Weston-Super-Mare 71,451 10. Harrogate 66,178