£240m. Road Programme for Next Four Years
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BY MAI PARLIAMENTARY CORRESPONDENT
A NEW £240m. road programme for 1958-1962 was announced by r-k Mr. Harold Watkinson, Minister of Transport, in the House of Commons on Monday. This compares with the present programme of 1140m.
Mr. Watkinson described it as "a very considerable advance on anything this country has so far done on roads and comparing more favourably with what any other comparative country is doing, except, perhaps, America."
The programme was dependent on the country's prosperity. The tempo of road building was to be increased. The Government thought that the new programme wag justified by the economic climate of the times. The Sooner it was completed the quicker benefit would be obtained.
The Government were trying to overtake a period of 20 years when no significant road work was done. Authorizations of schemes were now rising to £60m.-£70m. a year. Authorizations in the current programme had risen from £19m. in 1954-55 to over £65m. this year, Next year they would be substantially in excess of £65m.
Between March, 1955, and June, 1957, 2,500 road schemes had been started at a cost of £42m.
Three Aims Mr. Watkinson's plan was to try to start a major network of trunk roads to motorway standard, to remove urban bottlenecks and to maintain a reasonable amount of smaller works all over the country.
He rejected proposals for a road loan and "many other devices," because they would not help, but he hinted: "It might be possible to develop some kind of loan especially for specific projects such as bridges and tunnels."
Mr. Russell (Coos., S. Wembley) urged the need for underpasses. Mr. Gresham Cooke (Cons., Twickenham) complained that unnecessary delays on road-building sites were being caused by surveyors and managements.
Mr. G. R. H. Nugent, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry, in winding up the debate, said that the Ministry was aware of the need to offer large contracts to attract the bigger contractors. Sections of the Birmingham motorway would be offered to builders in £4m. or £5m. lengths of road, and it would be worth while to use outsize plant.
62,000 EXPORTED
EXPGRTS of commercial vehicles in the first half of the year numbered 62,000, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders announced this week. In buying nearly 3,490 British commercial vehicles in six months, Argentina rose to third place by value in the group of leading purchasers of commercial vehicles from the United Kingdom.
DOUBLE-DECKERS FOR PROFIT
BY replacing single-deck trolleybuses by double-deckers, Rotherham Transport Department last year raised revenue by 13.72 per cent., whereas costs increased by only 3.89 per cent. It was a record year, revenue fra2Ini all sources reaching £788,731.