White Paper 'OK'
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THE GOVERNMENT's roads White Paper for England is "satisfactory in the light of present economic circumstances", according to the House of Commons Transport Committee.
In its report on the Government's trunk roads policy, it says that, provided there is a firm commitment to maintain expenditure at 1980/81 planned levels, there is no reason to suspect that British Road Federation predictions of catastrophe will come to pass.
And it goes on to say that the Government should find more money for capital expenditure on trunk roads when it is possible to increase public expenditure.
The committee says it does not support calls for increased capital expenditure on roads, as political realities would dictate that this comes from elsewhere in the transport budget, probably from British Rail which, in the Committee's view is already starved of sufficient funds.
The main criticisms of the report are centred on detailed points where Government aims to improve industrial links appear to be at variance with the White Paper.
It finds it odd that a White Paper which stresses the need to "improve radial routes from London, particularly to the Channel ports" should include the suspension of work on the Maidstone-Ashford section of the M20.
Junior Transport Minister Kenneth Clarke told the Committee that the M20 could be "safely deferred for another eight to ten years", but the committee, which was chaired for this report by Conservative MP Peter Fry, points out that traffic towards Folkestone and Dover on the A20 is likely to increase sharply.
The report takes a similar line on the Al /M1 link road, which is unlikely to start until after 1984, and which is intended to help the Haven Ports of Felixstowe and Harwich.
The report says"We believe that in cases where individual road decisions appear to conflict with the stated priorities of the programme, much fuller information and explanations should be provided in the text of future White Papers."
London's roads are viewed by the report as a "national scandal" caused partly by decades of financial constraints, and also by violent changes of policy by the Greater London Council and its predecessors.
It describes the M25 as the "most important and ambitious bypass of them all", which will help cure London's problems, but it says there must be an urgent review of London's overall transport problems, including public transport: