Road Designation (Hansard, 22 April 2002)

§ Mr. Jack
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what his Department's definition is of(a) a trunk road and (b) a strategic route. [50763]

§ Mr. Spellar
The trunk road network is the national system of routes for through traffic. The Highways Agency manages this network in England on behalf of the Secretary of State. There is no definition of a strategic route but we identified a core network of nationally important trunk routes in "A New Deal for Trunk Roads in England" published in July 1998.

§ Mr. Jack
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will make a statement on the reasons why the A683 link to the M6 is designated a strategic routeway; and if he will list the factors which determined the designation of the M6 Link Road Scheme to Heysham a proposal of regional significance. [50677]

§ Mr. Spellar
The designation of the A683 as a strategic routeway and the M6 to Heysham Link as a route of regional significance was made by the North West Regional Assembly in its role as the Regional Planning Body.
The designation process of roads as routes of Regional significance by the NWRA considered a number of factors, most specifically, the function of a particular route in terms of its strategic importance, status and type of traffic carried.

§ Mr. Jack
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions if he will list the reasons for and provide an analysis of the factors which led to the proposal to detrunk the A585. [50678]

§ Mr. Spellar
My noble Friend the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (Lord Whitty) 51W confirmed the routes in the core trunk road network in April 1999. The routes were identified following public consultation and taking the following factors into account: linking main centres of population and economic activity; accessing major ports, airports and rail intermodal terminals; joining the peripheral regions to the centre; providing key cross-border links to Scotland and Wales; classification as part of the UK Trans-European Road Network.