Government to Start New Road Plan
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AS forecast in The Commercial Motor last week, the Queen's Speech at the opening of Parliament on Tuesday promised that a new programme of road construction would be introduced.
The Address said: " My Ministers are greatly concerned at the grievous toll in death and injury that is taken in road accidents, at the inadequacy of our highways system for the ever-increasing volume of traffic, and at the damage done to our national economy by traffic congestion and delays.
"My Ministers have accordingly decided to embark on an expanded programme of road construction and improvement designed both to increase safety on the roads and to promote the freer flow of traffic. The Road Traffic Acts will also be amended to further these aims."
No specific reference was made to the solution of the contract-carriage problem, but it is likely that new legislation to amend the existing Road Traffic Acts will include this provision. A Government spokesman recently said in the House of Lords that a Bill to amend the contract-carriage law was in draft.
The Queen's Speech also stated that legislation would be proposed to authorize an incrtase in the borrowing powers of the Britith Transport Commission.
ROAD FUND TO GO
THE Government intends toabolish the Road Fund. The Treasury agrees with the House of Commons Select Committee on Estimates that the Fund has largely outlived its usefUlness, according to a departmental reply to a report of the committee, published this week. . This development was foreshadowed in The Commercial Motor on April 30.
In its reply, the Treasury stated that as soon as legislation was possible proposals would be made, and Government expenditure on roads woUld be met from Ministry of Transport estimates.
The departmental reply is given in the "Fifth Special Report of the Select Committee on Estimates" ,(Stationery Office, 6d.).
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