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Mr. Henry Bellingham (North-West Norfolk): The Minister will soon open a new road--the A47 west of King's Lynn--in my constituency. However, a number of my constituents are concerned about the delays over the Hardwick flyover on the A47--a scheme that all the environmentalists support. My constituents often say,"In other parts of the country people do not want roads,such as the Newbury bypass. Why not build a road where there is overwhelming support?" It would not be an expensive scheme and it has gone through its planning stages. I am sure that the Minister will support my campaign to have that road built soon.
Mr. Thompson: I support the case put by my hon. Friend. The A47 has an appalling accident rate and causes great delays. In fact, a lot of the traffic that should use the A47 diverts on to the A14 and comes through to Great Yarmouth. When the business community in my constituency tell me that this situation is not good enough, I have to agree with them. Road links to Norwich have had a low priority in the past, and that is why we have this problem. This is not the time to abandon the push for improvements. The campaign must be stepped up so that the Government accept that they must look again at their priorities.
Mr. John MacGregor (South Norfolk): During my time in this House--including when I was the Secretary of State for Transport--I have sought to improve the road links from Norfolk and to gain the bypasses that are needed. I demonstrate the priority that I attach to this issue by spending my birthday participating in the Adjournment debate. There have been substantial improvements to the roads in my constituency, with the introduction of bypasses--which make a great difference to rural towns and villages--and the improvements to the A11.
Now that we have improved those roads, we need to finish the job. If we do not, the perception that Norfolk is far way will continue to exist. That is why it is important to complete the links and the bypasses on the A11 and the A47. There is an impression in Norfolk county council that, Government policy at the moment is against bypasses. An important county council bypass on the A413 still has not been completed. There have been bypasses on the rest of the road, but the village of Broome is facing real difficulties.
The Minister for Railways and Roads (Mr. John Watts):
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich, North (Mr. Thompson) on securing the debate. I also congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Mr. MacGregor) on spending his birthday with us.
My hon. Friend expressed concern about the effect that managing the trunk road programme announcement has had on the various schemes to improve the A11 and the A47 leading to Norwich. It may help if I explain briefly the background to the announcement that was made at the time of the Budget by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport. A combination of sharply rising road construction costs and a continuing need to keep firm control of public expenditure, necessitated a review of the trunk road programme.
The new programme has been targeted at key routes, and primarily at making the best possible use of the existing network. The new national programme includes a significant number of bypasses, but many very desirable and strongly supported schemes have had to be deferred or withdrawn altogether.
My right hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk asked about our commitment to bypasses. I can assure him that we remain committed to funding local bypasses as far as resources permit, as that is often the best method of dealing with traffic congestion and improving the environment in rural areas. As a demonstration of that,
I can tell my right hon. Friend that bypasses account for nearly one third of the road schemes currently being funded by transport supplementary grant--a total of 48 out of 147 schemes. I must point out also that in the tight 1996-97 public expenditure settlement, we have still managed to approve five new rural bypasses for TSG.It is for the local highways authority to decide on the priority that it wishes to give to promoting bypasses when putting its bids to us. About a quarter of the trunk road programme is devoted to bypass schemes.
Our main priorities for East Anglia are the A14 and the M11-A11. In recent years, the No. 1 priority for East Anglia has been the A14. That dual carriageway trunk road all the way from the M1-M6 junction to Felixstowe is one of the key strategic routes for the region.
We have five further schemes in the programme for capacity and safety improvements on the route. Those are the Thrapston to Brampton grade separated junction, the A14/M11-A10 widening, the A14(M) Bar Hill-M1/A1 link, the A14 Quarries Cross GSJ and the Rookery crossroads GSJ.
The A14 is also one of the 14 Christophersen priority projects for the European Community and it is eligible for some funding from the trans-European networks budget.
As well as constructing that major new route, to open up East Anglia to the west midlands and elsewhere, we have been investing significantly nearer to the homes of my right hon and hon. Friends. In the past five years, we have spent over £180 million on improvements to trunk roads in Norfolk alone.
I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich, North will be pleased to learn that our next priority in the region is the M11-A11 route from London to Norwich. The priority placed upon that route is widely accepted in the region, as it is the key route to Norwich, and thence on to the coast.
We are making great strides with the dualling of the A11 from south of Cambridge, with eight of the 12 schemes already opened. Just before Christmas, I opened the latest section, the Stumps Cross-Fourwentways scheme, which I am sure my right hon. and hon. Friends have used. Another, the Besthorpe-Wymondham improvement scheme, is also nearing completion and will be opened very shortly.
That will leave us with only three schemes to complete the dualling of the A11 from the M11 to Norwich.All those schemes have been retained in the main programme. The most advanced of those, the Roudham Heath-Attleborough improvement scheme, is ready to start when funds become available. The others--the A11 Attleborough bypass dualling and the Fiveways to Thetford improvement--will follow, and it remains our firm intention to complete the dualling of that key route.
My hon. Friend the Member for Norwich, North asked me to explain what was meant by the term "on hold". When looking at the main road programme, we must try to ensure that we have the right number of schemes reaching the start of work stage to match the funding that we think will be available to start construction. If we take schemes through their preparation stages too quickly,we build up a backlog and the expenditure could be aborted, particularly if we have made orders for compulsory purchase and they time-expire. That means that we have too many other schemes at the same stage.
We shall move forward at the appropriate pace so as to be ready when funding is likely to be available for construction.
Our third priority in the region is the A47. I am sorry that we have not been able to make as much progress as we had hoped, and I recognise that the long-cherished hopes of many local businesses and authorities for a complete dual carriageway route will not be immediately forthcoming.
However, it should be remembered that in recent years, we have spent some £150 million on schemes on the A47 in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, between the A1 at Peterborough and Great Yarmouth. They include the Norwich southern bypass, which has not only greatly benefited the city, but considerably improved travel to the coastal towns of Great Yarmouth and, to a lesser degree, Lowestoft. There are other schemes in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. They include the A47 East Dereham-North Tuddenham improvement, the Narborough improvement and the Walpole Highway-Tilney End bypass.
The latest scheme, the Walpole Highway-Tilney End bypass, is nearing completion and should be opened in a few weeks' time. There are also two further schemes in the main programme: the Hardwick roundabout flyover at King's Lynn, on which my hon. Friend the Member for North-West Norfolk (Mr. Bellingham) has made such strong and repeated representations, and the Thorney bypass, in whose support my hon. Friend the Member for North-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Moss) has made strenuous efforts.
I must disabuse my hon. Friend the Member for North-West Norfolk of the misconception that the Newbury bypass is not wanted. It is wanted by the overwhelming majority of the people of Newbury.In reality, there are few schemes in the programme that face significant opposition, except from those whom I call NIYBYs--the "not in your back yard" people who live nowhere near the area that suffers from the traffic, but who none the less wish to deny the bypass to those who would benefit from it.
All the other schemes on the A47 will be brought forward as the programme rolls on. However, I cannot give any undertakings at this stage about when schemes in the long-term programme can move into the main programme. However, where we have withdrawn major schemes or are unable to make rapid progress with them in the foreseeable future, as a matter of course we shall consider whether more limited improvements to the existing roads can be implemented to improve safety and to ease congestion.
In continuing to maintain the existing routes, we are currently constructing the A47-A1122 roundabout junction at Swaffham Heath, which should be completed this financial year. We also have proposals to provide a right-turn facility at Knarr Fen at an estimated cost of £220,000 and an addition of 1 m hardstrips between Thorney and Guyhirn, at an estimated cost of between£2 million and 3 million. That is all further evidence of our commitment to a realistic programme of improvements to the strategic routes serving Norwich on trunk roads.
We must not look solely to the trunk road network as being the only routes serving East Anglia and Norwich. My Department has provided considerable financial support for Norfolk county council schemes in recent years. In the past two years alone, support has been given
for the A143 Scole-Stuston bypass and the A143 Brockdish-Needham bypass, both of which are now open to traffic, and construction works are in progress on the A149 Ormesby bypass.
I am also pleased that, in the latest local transport settlement, we were able to continue to support the county council's package bid for Norwich for a second year--including the Cringleford park-and-ride scheme--with a further £2.3 million-worth of credit approvals.
I said earlier that it was vital that priorities were set within a realistic financial framework. We have done that in a responsible manner, concentrating our efforts on the key national routes. To retain schemes in the main
programme or the long-term programme that we know would have little realistic opportunity of being delivered would be to mislead people.
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