Spending cuts to Leave roads in jeopardy
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PUBLIC SPENDING cuts to be announced in October will leave the Department for Transport with only enough money to maintain existing infrastructure and hardly anything to invest in new roads, a transport fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrats conference in Liverpool heard on Monday.
Speaking at the 'Transport is vital to the economy' Q&A session, which was one of the Freight Transport Association's ( ETA) Transport Hub party conference events,David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said private funding for new roads was 'inevitable'.
Chaired by sister title Motor Transport's editor Steve Hobson, attendees were told that Britain's only private motorway the M6 toll road has been a failure as the operator has been allowed to set charges too high. "The M6 toll is empty because people would rather wait in traffic than pay," said Frost.
Also speaking at the event, Richard Hebditch, campaigns director at the Campaign for Better Transport, said congestion charging had been ruled out for the current Parliament, but a lorry road-user charging scheme should be introduced. He warned: "We need to be clear what the objectives are."
The aim of the Transport Hub events is to persuade the government to take a long-term view of transport and continue to invest in it.