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(1) the Order of the House [11th December] be further amended as follows--
(a) in paragraph 5, by leaving out the words 'in Scotland on Monday 4th March' and inserting the words 'in the Palace Theatre, Kilmarnock, on Monday 4th March to take Questions for oral answer and';
(b) in paragraph 6, by leaving out the words 'in Scotland' and inserting the words 'in the City Chambers, Glasgow,'; and
(c) in paragraph 7, by leaving out the words 'in Scotland on Monday 22nd April' and inserting the words 'in the Highland Council Building, Inverness, on Monday 22nd April to take Questions for oral answer and';
(2) in respect of the meeting of the Scottish Grand Committee in the Highland Council Building, Inverness, on Monday 22nd April, the Order of the House [11th December] shall have effect with the substitution of the words 'half-past Eleven o'clock' for the words 'half-past Ten o'clock' and the Chairman shall interrupt the proceedings at Two o'clock; and
(3) notwithstanding the provisions of Standing Order No. 94B (Scottish Grand Committee (questions for oral answer)), noticesof questions for Monday 4th March may be given on Tuesday20th February.--[Mr. Knapman.]
PETITION
Wild Mammals (Protection)
10.14 pm
Mr. Nigel Griffiths (Edinburgh, South): I have the honour to present a petition on behalf of 200 branches of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and of Muriel Haig and 60 branches of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in support of my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Mr. Meale), whose Bill to protect wild mammals received a Second Reading in another place today. I am grateful to the RSPCA, Rona Macdonald and her colleagues for all their assistance.
Norwich (Road Links)
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.--[Mr. Knapman.]
10.16 pm
Mr. Patrick Thompson (Norwich, North): I am pleased to have secured a debate on road links with Norwich, and am grateful to my hon. Friend the Minister for Railways and Roads for once again responding to concerns in East Anglia about the region's transport infrastructure. I know that my hon. Friend is used to responding to Adjournment debates, and it is for that reason that I am pleased that he is here. I also welcome my right hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk(Mr. MacGregor). It is his birthday today, so it is a considerable sacrifice on his part to attend tonight's debate. I appreciate his support and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Great Yarmouth (Mr. Carttiss), other hon. Members and the Whip--I appreciate support from wherever it may come.
Along with the Norwich and Waveney chamber of commerce and the local newspapers--the Eastern Daily Press and the Evening News--I have long campaigned for improvements to the A11 and the A47 in particular. Some years ago--I think it was 1985 or thereabouts--I recall driving a heavy goods vehicle all the way from Norwich to London with members of the local press in the cab and television cameras on at least some of the bridges along the way. It was part of a campaign to improve the roads to Norwich, a campaign that I have since continued with the support of my colleagues who represent Norfolk and the surrounding area.
That journey was interesting. I think that I caused a traffic jam because I was not driving quite as fast as I should have been to keep up with the normal heavy goods vehicle traffic. In view of this impending debate, last Monday I decided to take a particular interest in my journey from Norwich to London. I left Norwich at12.20 pm and reached the Attleborough bypass, but,at about 1 pm, there was an accident further down the single carriageway. I then had to take a very roundabout, cross-country route to Thetford and eventually reached London at 4.15 pm. From Newmarket onwards there was a clear run, but, once again, there were serious problems in Norfolk caused by the single carriageway. Even that journey last Monday illustrates my point, which is that there are still serious bottlenecks on the route from Norwich to London.
Not everyone realises that every single important entry route into Norwich, whether it is the A17 from Newark and Sleaford, the A47 from Peterborough and Wisbech or the A11 from London, forms a single carriageway as it crosses the Norfolk boundary. People in Norfolk are therefore right to say that we have not yet done enough to improve our roads.
There has been genuine concern in Norwich about the prospects for economic growth and employment following the sale of Colmans and job losses at Nestle. Leading business men in the city felt it essential to address the challenge of providing new markets and work for local people rather than waiting for some fairy godmother to appear.
That positive response led to the creation in January of the new Norwich area development agency under the chairmanship of Malcolm Wall. I pay tribute to the
agency's stimulus, which has widened the debate on the prospects of Norwich, Norfolk in general and our transport links in particular.
There is no need for undue gloom. Norwich's role as the capital of Norfolk and the regional centre of East Anglia is well known. The strength of the city's economy lies in its wide range of industrial and commercial companies that operate in manufacturing and the service sector. The decline in employment in our local clothing and footwear trades, electrical engineering and metal goods has been more than counter-balanced by the growth in printing and publishing, the media, mechanical engineering and the exciting area of bio-technology research, which is centred on the university of East Anglia.
Today's unemployment figures show a continuing fall in unemployment in Norwich. Norwich suffered less in the recession of the late 1980s and early 1990s than other parts of the country. Forecasts by Norwich city council in September 1994 and the Norfolk and Waveney training and enterprise council last year suggest that Norwich and its surrounding area can expect a further growth in construction and the service sector in the next 10 years.
If those predictions are to be realised, good road communication is essential. Norwich is the biggest conurbation not to have direct access to the national dual carriageway network. The city's link with the region's most important port, the A47 to Great Yarmouth, is a single carriageway from Acle to Great Yarmouth, with a poor accident and congestion record.
Traffic movements on the A47 are expected to rise from the 15,000 a day in 1993, which was already above its designed capacity on undualled sections, to between 21,000 and 24,000 a day by 2001. Similarly, it is predicted that traffic movements on the A11 will grow from about 20,000 a day to between 27,000 and 31,000 a day by the same date. They are potential increases in traffic of between 35 per cent. and 60 per cent.
Without significant improvement of both roads, increased traffic congestion will lead to longer delays in delivery times and poorer service from firms based in Norwich compared to those available from competitors operating in areas with better road networks. Companies, individuals and households will be penalised in time lost, lower competitiveness, lost job prospects and environmental damage.
Fuel consumption is inevitably higher on congested roads where there is slow stop-start travel. Recent research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research Ltd. demonstrates the environmental damage that will arise in urban areas from reduced spending on the road programme. The Government are rightly taking seriously the environmental arguments on traffic control and road structure, and that is fine. Nevertheless, my argument is environmental. Traffic jams on the A11 and the A47, caused by a single carriageway, long queues of traffic and accidents, lead to people travelling slowly and increased pollution. I certainly reject any environmental argument against the case that I am presenting.
Businesses in Norwich are acutely aware of the challenges of the major road network. Almost 35 per cent. of firms surveyed in Norwich in 1994 consider access to motorways, major transport links and ease of distribution the top factors in influencing their possible locations. That was the concern most frequently expressed by firms
taking part in the survey. A number of companies commented on the benefits of being somewhere where distribution would be easier, somewhere with a better road network. The eastern region of the CBI, covering more than 2,300 member companies, has come to the same conclusion.
There is no doubt that, during my 12 years as a Member of Parliament for Norwich, North, the issue that the business community has raised most regularly with me has been the one that I am raising tonight. That issue has been at the top of the business man's agenda since I have been a Member of Parliament.
Actively managed firms regretted the extra day or so that it took to reach their customers and some expressed the view that if they were starting again from scratch they would have preferred a location in the midlands.
My right hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk was Secretary of State for Transport and one of his predecessors described East Anglia as the Cinderella of the national road network. In spite of recent improvements, to which I shall refer in a moment, that is still true. It is not surprising that, in recent months, business leaders in Norwich have even been in touch with the Chairman of the Select Committee on Transport on that issue.
It was partly to address that issue that the Norwich area development agency was created in 1995. It has argued consistently for the upgrading of the A11 and the A47 to improve the region's economic ties with Holland, Denmark and the Baltic states and for a wider range of services from Norwich airport. Those pleas have had the support of the European Commission which recommended that the A47 should be included in the trans-European road network of routes of more than national importance to form one of the vital strategic routes throughout Europe. Norwich airport's links with offshore industries would certainly benefit from the dualling of that route. I, too, am happy to support that argument.
In case that should appear to be a rather gloomy introduction to this short speech, I should like to say that I do not wish to claim that the Government have done nothing to invest in the road network around Norwich or in Norfolk. I have had some difficulty in the past week in obtaining figures from the Department of Transport.I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will not mind my referring to that, but it is difficult to collect together all the figures and I shall therefore be deliberately vague. In the past 10 years, about £100 million has been spent on the A11, about half of that in Norfolk, and somewhat more than £100 million on the A47, nearly all of that in Norfolk. That is pretty well all since the May 1989 White Paper "Roads to Prosperity".
The opening of Norwich's southern bypass and the completion of the newly constructed section of the A11 between Stump Cross and Fourwentways have made a fantastic difference. As I mentioned earlier with regard to my journey from Norwich to London, once I reached the Newmarket area it was full--I had better be careful what I say because there was a lot of bad driving, and that is a subject for another Adjournment debate; but it was certainly a clear run all the way, and that is good.
The new Wymondham bypass, which will be opened shortly--I gather that it has been delayed a little--will be a great benefit to road commuters and to those commuting
to and from London. Links to Cambridge on the A11 and beyond, with the A1-M1 link to the west midlands, are rightly to the Government's credit. I hope that my hon. Friend recognises that I understand what has been done and I pay tribute and give thanks for that.
I also pay tribute to the tremendous work done in all this by my right hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk in his capacity not only as a Norfolk Member of Parliament but as Secretary of State for Transport. I also welcome to the debate my hon. Friend the Member for North-West Norfolk (Mr. Bellingham), who also has an interest in the A47 in particular and road links in general.
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