Road schemes slashed
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by Sally Nash • More than two-thirds of all planned road schemes are being axed or put on hold, but two controversial schemes, including the widening of the M25, have been given the green light.
Only 37 "targeted and achievable schemes" have escaped the chop, Out of the 150 projects Labour inherited from the Conservatives.
Despite Labour's initial opposition to the idea of widening the M25, the section from Junctions 12-15, which carries up to 200,000 vehicles a day, will be widened to five or six lanes each way. Suggestions on how to best use the extra lanes include dedicating them to buses or car-sharing schemes.
The Government's other controversial decision was to refuse a £30m bypass on the A303 near Stonehenge. Instead, a "cut and cover" tunnel will be built for traffic.
Although many other bypass schemes have been abandoned, one is going ahead—in Bingley, Yorks, where residents have been campaigning for 50 years.
British Road Federation director Richard Diment says: "A lot more schemes would have been given the go-ahead if more funds were available from the Treasury out of the L3Obn it receives from motorists." He slammed the failure to widen parts of the MG, M1 and other parts of the M25. A In Wales Transport Minister Peter Hain is dropping one expensive scheme, designed to relieve the Cardiff-Pontypridd dual carriageway.
But he is considering improvements to other road schemes, including sections of the North-South trunk road.