BRF Concern Over Stop-Go on Roads
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%PENING the Newcastle-under-Lyme by-pass last week, the Minister of ansport said he was happy that his first icial visit to the Midlands was for so nstructive a purpose. In recent years, iwcastle, in common with larger urban ;as, has had to contend with tremenus increases in the volume of traffic ng its streets that were never designed today's loads.
As the Minister responsible", said r, Fraser, "I do not need the critics to rsuade me that what is needed is more d better roads as fast as they can be avidecl. But here we are up against ; stark and vital question of what the momy can afford. And it Was against
s background that the Chancellor, in i statement in the House of Commons ring the week, said that we must keep r expenditure within the level that we a nation can afford," Coincident with the Minister's state;int, Lord Gosford, chairman of the itish Road Federation, wrote to the ime Minister last week concerning the tancellor's statement on road expendi-e. Lord Gosford referred to the ;fficiency resulting from short-term ts in the road programme. "For this rpose, I am assuming that any cuts. if aceeded with, will later be restored, d also that the road programme will ntinue to rise thereafter faster than the erage of public expenditure. If this is t the case, I hope you will say so enly."
Lord Gosford also wrote: "Another n of the Chancellor's comprehensive neme is to secure redeployment of your. Stop-go in the road construein industry will have serious repercusins. These amount to wastage of iources."
Specialist teams—both professional d technical—would have to be broken and expensive plant would lie idle, he ded. Continuity of work in road conuction was the only way to achieve iciency and low costs, and to permit greatest use of labour-saving equipt.
eply to AA 4l a reply to Mr. A, C. Durk, directorgeneral of the Automobile Associa0, the Minister of Transport has said it it is hoped to finish the complete idland motorway link by 1970-71. Mr. trie, in a letter dated July 12, had ged the Minister to speed up action help traffic on the road links between 1 and M6 motorways.
Mr. Fraser emphasized that what was inted was an efficient motorway so signed that it did not disrupt the living d working conditions of the community mind it. There was, therefore, basically problem of engineering design, involvg multi-level junctions taking the miniam of land, large-scale diversion of nals and water-courses and considerle use of waste land, An ill-prepared sign would benefit nobody.