Roads better than 'night ashore'
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THE PRESENT Government's policy of planning for tax reductions rather than investing in new roads amounts to no more than giving the crew of the ship of state a night ashore, British Road Federation chairman Tony de Boer said last week.
He was speaking at the BREs annual general meeting and called for more money to he spent on road building.
"We now have to ask ourselves whether it would not be in the national interest to begin to increase public investment in the sectors which offer a real economic return.
"Is this not a better way forward in terms of national efficiency than tax reductions?"
He said that the BRF, as a broad supporter of the Gov ernment's economic policies, had been prepared to accept the "very rigid and painful" economic controls imposed over the past six months, but it is now looking for sonic room to manoeuvre.
"In nautical terms, having managed to claw off a dangerous lea shore and get back on an increasingly promising course, it makes sense to take advantage of any favourable shift in wind and tide to speed the boat.
'It certainly seems to make more sense than giving the crew the 'night ashore' on tax reductions," he added.
"The time for that is when we have made the home port of a sound economy and the potential prosperity that goes with it."
Mr de Boer went on to complain that local govern merit road spending is being held back by uncertaintly. He called for three-year or, preferably, five-year rolling grants from the Government to help develop a better road programme at local level.
"The introduction of low cost loans and exemption of debt service charges from current expenditure assessments would also offer substantive assistance," he added.
• Mr de Boer's comments came soon after the BRF's new director, Peter Witt, urged the Department of Transport to press ahead as fast as possible with the M40 extension from Oxford to Birmingham.
Mr Witt was commenting on the High Court's ruling last month against groups who were objecting to the motorway extension.