Road attack
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HUGE DROPS in Government spending on new roads and general road maintenance have been Strongly attacked by the road haulage industry.
The Freight Transport Association hit out at "this short sighted policy" and claimed that the expenditure cuts would sink plans for a nationwide lorry route network.
And the Road Haulage Association believes that the cut backs, far from saving money, will increase the cost of production right across the board.
The public expenditure White Paper spells out the massive nature of the reductions in one stark sentence. "Expenditure on both road construction and maintenance in 1978-79 is to be less than 75 per cent of that originally planned."
It is still planned to have 3,100 miles of high quality roads. But this is now likely to be achieved by the middle rather than the early 1980's.
Speaking in Derby yesterday, the deputy director general of the TTA, Mr Garry Turvey, said that the cuts would further delay the lorry route network.
The system could not be pursued beyond modest pro.
posals based on motorways and those roads already capable of carrying heavy traffic. It was a "pale imitation" of what had been envisaged not so long ago. The RHA said that an • adequate system of roads was urgently needed. Delays in the building programme could only add to costs in other sections of the economy.
Something like 85 per cent of all freight now went by road, so that trade and industry rely almost entirely on road transport for delivery to their prem ises and to their customers, both at home and abroad.
Cuts and delays in the road programme, on the other hand, could only add to costs in all sections of the economy including those where the Government also plans to save money, such as 'housing and agriculture.