Proper Port Links Are Over Ten Years Away
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FROM A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT MINE out of every 10 tons of British
11 exports and imports arriving at the Port of London come or go by road. But the connection of. the port with M1 and all other national motorways except M2 via a London motorway system is so far off that it may be more than 10 years before work starts on the link, • This was one of the cardinal points brought home to a 12-member delegation of the All-Party Roads Study Group which ended a five-day, fact-finding probe of traffic conditions and planning in Birmingham. Port of Lotidon, Dusseldorf and Rotterdam as the guests of the Roads Campaign Council on Monday.
In its 1962 report the Rochdale Committee on Britain's ports said: " Inland
transport is a critical factor in port ellicienc.y: the history of recent years has been dominated by a • shift from rail to road transport.The committee recommended that the special needs of the Port
of London should be the subject of urgent study by all the interests concerned ".
But Birmingham, despite meagre funds, has become Britain's most .go-.ahead city in new and improved road development, says the Campaign Council. A valuable section of the (L27m, inner ring road is open, three • underpasses have been finished and four more, plus two flyovers, are being built.
The city's Chamber of Commerce and Indust ry repo ri ed to • the delegationthe
difficulties experienced by its members in maintaining an efficient road service for exports to the Port of London. On July 13 the delegation travelled to the port by road via MI and the lorry route" through London.
Port of London officials explained the traffic difficulties gripping the approaches to the port and the delegation inspected the road approaches from helicopters provided by the PLA.
Traffic congestion between East London, and London Airport prevented the delegation from probing road conditions in the centre of the capital on its way to the airport and it was taken by helicopter.
In Dusseldorf the delegation inspected the first 10 mites already open of the
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planned 44-mile urban motorway network that inter-connects with the national motorway system which is joined to the Dutch network. In Rotterdam the delegation saw the outer ring motorway which is being completed to carry DutchGerman motorway traffic to Europoort, the massive addition to the modern port of Rotterdam, now being developed. In Dusseldorf and Rotterdam the MPs were told that expenditure •on new and improved roads totals £7 per head of the population every year, compared with £2 in Birmingham.
Dusseldorrs road expenditure is greater than the budgets for housing, hospitals or schools; Rotterdam's is second only to
housing. Yet only 40 per cent of export traffic arrives at Rotterdam's docks by road, compared with 90 per cent of London's.
The delegation was led by the Campaign's chairman, Mr. Wilfrid Andrews, who commented upon the delegation's return at London Airport: "It is difficult to understand why national resources are not released by an all-out onslaught on traffic congestion, which cost £530m. (excluding leisure time) in 1964. That was equal to-a 2 per cent increase in the 1963 Gross National Product (£26.536m.)."
Copies of the dossier have been sent to the Minister of Transport, the Shadow Minister of Transport and spokesmen on transport for the Liberal Party.