MP hits at under-investment
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in road transport
IF the Chancellor believed that our economic revival depended on investment in the future, it was true to say that the efficient functioning of our industry and export drive also depended on correct investment in transport, Mr Peter Fry (Tory, Wellingborough) told the Commons.
He was speaking during a debate last week on the Budget in which few references were made to the additional burden on road transport—and then Only of the unwisdom of increasing the road fund duty on cars at a time when public transport was so bad.
Next year, when we remained in Europe, the eight hour rule would be applied to our drivers. We had to compare the time taken by a driver from Meriden to reach the East Coast ports with that taken by a person driving from the Ruhr to the ports of Western Europe.
That was the competition we had to face in transport, but we were not meeting it.
Owing to the cutback in the plans for 1973 it would be 1980 before we reached the same level of expenditure. Next year there would be a further cutback of £91 million on all roads and £74m in capital expenditure, out of a total roadbuilding programme of £319m for trunk roads and £277m for local roads, went on Mr Fry.
Far from being ready for the boom in 1976 we should be lucky if we were ready for the boom of 1985. That was how far the country had fallen behind.
He had no hesitation in saying that far too little of the revenue extracted from the road user—£2,500m this year—was devoted to road construction and maintenance.
For far too long there had been an under-investment in transport as a whole, and particularly in the building of roads. He believed that we sadly needed a much better road structure and a far better transport system.