Spend more on roads BRF urges Ministers
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IHE LOW LEVEL of resources devoted to British road building is out 31 all proportion to the needs of the nation, British Road Federation :hairman Tony de Boer said in London last week.
Addressing industrial leaders, capital spending, while the Vlr de Boer said trunk road and nation's real resources of man
notorway investment has iropped to its lowest level in 15 tears, and added that this is havng a serious effect not only for .oad users, but for those who Ire waiting for by-passes.
Joining the growing band of nfluential voices which are callng for an investment-led recov?.ry, he said: "Britain's industrial mse is now being seriously veakened, compared with other European countries, by the cuts n public investment."
He pointed out that, while ten (ears ago nine per cent of the Jnited Kingdom gross domestic )roduct was reinvested in the mblic sector in roads, housing, vater, railways, and hospitals, his is now under six per cent.
Saying that the real priority is :o match investment with the weds of present and future traf'lc levels, Mr de Boer said that
• oad traffic will rise by between 3 quarter and threequarters probably nearer the latter) over :he next 20 years.
He described Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Geoffrey Howe's -esistance to any increase in
power, materials, and machines lie idle, as "the tragedy of what is happening."
And pointing to real examples of what can be done, he said that 550 communities still need bypasses, yet "countless' bypasses and other road schemes are being threatened.
In London, he said that the basic road network "not including costly ringways" would cost £2,500m, but present spending levels meant it would take 80 years to deal with what the House of Commons transport committee dubbed the "scandal" of London's roads.
But if his enthusiasm for the Thatcher brand of Conservatism is non-existent, so too is his support for the new Labour administration at the Greater London Council. Dealing with the 80-year roads problem, he said: "To ignore the problem further is to condemn communities throughout London to an endless nightmare of traffic noise and congestion.
"You cannot deal with it by the hare-brained ideas for subsidies and restraints being discussed by the new administration."