Mr. Marples Warns Motorway Drivers
Page 42
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A STERN warning was issued to 1—k drivers by Mr. Ernest Marples, Minister of Transport, when he opened the London-Birmingham motorway on Monday.
The M1 would bring immense benefits if drivers used discipline, common sense and obeyed the rules. But disaster and tragedy might descend on those who drove recklessly or selfishly. New driving techniques must be learnt, he emphasized.
Mr. Marples congratulated all connected with the project, but added: "We must press on. There is an immense volume of work ahead. We must create a road system worthy of the third quarter of the 20th century."
Speaking in London at a luncheon organized by the contractors responsible for the construction of the Ml, Mr. Harold Watkinson, former Minister of Transport, said that the rate of new road construction had been increased twentyfold over the past seven or eight years.
The greatest praise was due to all those members of the country's road-building team who had worked so hard and so successfully, he said.
Part of the price of pressing on must obviously be criticism as well as praise. he added. But this should be considered as a spur to greater effort rather than as an admonition to play safe.
[A report of a highspeed journey on M1 appears on page 432.1