All-party neglect: de Boer
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BRITAIN'S road programme is being seriously delayed by a rundown of investment, British Road Federation chairman Tony de Boer told the 50th annual general meeting of the BRF.
"Both major political parties have continued to run down the capital investment programme, and the failure to utilise the cash budgeted for roads in all but three of the past 22 years must raise serious doubts about whether the present programme will be completed in the 1990s," he said.
He pointed out that the motorway and trunk road network was still far from complete.
The trunk road construction budget in England for 1981/82 is expected to show a 16 per cent shortfall, equal to about £85m, Mr de Boer said, and in Scotland this shortfall will be about 22 per cent. In Wales it is six per cent.
"At a time when 400,000 construction workers are out of jobs, and another 25,000 workers in the rest of the economy are without work as a direct consequence of low road spending, such a shortfall is scandalous," he added.
If all the road tax collected went to build roads, Britain could bring its system up to date in just two-and-a-half years, instead of the 25 years it will take at present spending levels.
"The BRF wants to see, and believes it has a strong case for greater consideration and a greater financial commitment and urgency from the Government to complete a task that will benefit everybody.