Trunk routes • under review
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EVERYONE should be allowed more say in the way trunk roads are planned and built. And that includes both road haulage operators and environmentalists.
This is just one of many recommendations made in a 150,000-word report delivered to Transport Minister William Rodgers three months ago, and published this week.
Entitled Report of the Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment, it lists 61 recommendations. These include the Department of Transport improving its procedure for forecasting traffic on roads and being more objective in deciding how to tackle a major new road scheme.
The report, headed by Sir George Leitch, urges the DTp to adopt a framework for the assessment of trunk road schemes, and to make sure the following five bodies have their feelings on the matter taken into consideration: • Road users directly affected by the scheme; • Non-road users directly affected by the scheme; • Those concerned with the intrinsic value of the area through which a scheme passes; • Those indirectly affected by the scheme; and • The financing authority.
One recommendation suggests: "The effects of trunk road construction on regional economic development should be included in the assessment only where strong evidence can be adduced to support them," One possible outcome of the Leitch report could be the chance for interested parties to question the DTp on whether a particular new trunk road should be built at all,