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Motorway slowdown deliberate says BRF
Page 44
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• "Government delays in announcing future road plans now threaten a disastrous run-down in motorway building in the mid 1970s", says a British Road Federation report just published.
The Federation calls for plans to be drawn up urgently for a major follow-up programme of construction after the first 1,000 miles of motorway are in use, since while the report, "Motorway Progress", acknowledges that in the past 12 months 89 miles of new motorway were opened—more than at any other time in the past—it criticizes the continuing failure to complete on time the administrative preparations that are necessary before major road schemes can begin.
According to the report, the target set by the Ministry of Transport for a start to be made in 1968 on 215 miles of new motorway now seems well beyond reach. By the middle of June construction had begun on only 25 miles.
"Almost certainly", the report goes on, "work will have started by the end of the year on only about two-thirds of the schemes listed by the Ministry.
"It is inconceivable that within six months of a major statement by the Minister of State, Mr Stephen Swingler, that unforeseen delays could have arisen that would account adequately for the deferment of more than 70 miles of motorway."
The Federation sees only one explanation: "that the Government has had second thoughts and that the programme to which it was committed is being slowed down as a deliberate policy of further economic restraint".