The road wreckers
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MOTORWAY protest groups who disrupt public inquiries are endangering Britain's economic recovery, warns the chairman of the British Roads Federation, Mr Tony de Boer.
He told the North East division of the Freight Transport Association last week that "the wreckers are also posing a serious threat to democracy."
Said Mr de Boer: "A highly organised group is now cross ing the country appearing at every public inquiry into a road investment.
"Those who protest against the lorry are trying to force administrative decisions out of the hands of elected government. They want them taken by those who shout the loudest."
Politicians had failed to condemn the wreckers, so it was all the more essential for the views of the industry to be heard on road investment.
"We cannot allow the very real evidence of the industrial benefits roads bring to be ignored," he added. "We must not allow the spurious claims of the protesters to go unchallenged."
He told the audience that there had been seven cuts in three years in the road programme. It was now running some 10 years behind schedule.