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1.38 pm
Mr. David Evennett (Erith and Crayford): I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Mr. Dunn), who is a good friend and constituency neighbour, for allowing me to participate in his debate. I also congratulate him on securing a debate on the A2, which is extremely important to the people of south-east London and north-west Kent. The issues affecting the A2--traffic conditions and the problems for travellers and residents--remain relevant today. I am delighted that my hon. Friend the Minister of State is listening so intently, as I know of his concern about the A2. In his excellent speech, my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford highlighted many of the problems affecting that road.
The A2 cuts the borough of Bexley in half. It is without doubt one of the most important and busy roads in the country. It has seen a dramatic increase in usage during the past decade and is now a motorway in all but name. The level of traffic is way beyond anything that could have been comprehended, let alone estimated, when the road was opened as a dual carriageway in 1971. The road increased in importance and usage following the 1988 opening of the Rochester Way relief road. The opening of the QE2 bridge at Dartford has
27 Nov 1996 : Column 311
I regularly use the A2 while travelling home to Crayford from Westminster at night. Ten years ago, the road was relatively quiet outside the rush hour, but today, through Bexley, it is busy for 20 out of every 24 hours each day of the year. The traffic seems ceaseless. The speed at which vehicles travel is worrying; juggernauts and others go far too fast, are a real threat to safety and cause problems on the road. There are also concerns about bottlenecks, cones, repairs and tragic accidents--some of them fatal or serious, as my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford has highlighted--and there is a lack of facilities on the road for motorists, as my hon. Friend also pointed out. The installation of SOS telephones along my part of the A2, the improvement of lighting between Falconwood and the Black Prince interchange and the planting of shrubs and trees along the road have all been welcome improvements in the recent past. Environmental issues and the consequences and problems of safety for the houses that are close to the A2, however, remain of great concern.
In Bexley, the A2 environmental campaign was established in March 1995, and under the chairmanship of Ian Linden, it has endeavoured to promote improvements to give local residents some respite and at the same time considered traffic conditions and safety on the A2. Responses to the questionnaire "Living with the A2" highlight the residents' concerns and problems, which relate especially to safety, pollution, traffic volume and noise.
Accidents, hold-ups, congestion, increasing traffic levels, delay and safety problems concern and infuriate not only motorists who regularly use the A2, either to go into London to work or socialise or to go out of London into the beautiful Kent countryside, but local residents in my area who live alongside that important road.
More needs to be done to assist traffic flow and co-ordinate maintenance and lane closures. Higher barriers should be erected where there are houses at the side of the road in Bexley to improve safety for local residents. Like the M25, the road is heavily used, and traffic conditions and residents' problems need to be addressed further. Rubbish and refuse comes off the back of huge lorries with open tops as they travel along the road and ends up in my constituents' back gardens. That safety problem has not been addressed. The barriers in Bexley are far too low and not as safe as local residents need and demand them to be.
Mr. Jacques Arnold (Gravesham):
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Mr. Dunn) for raising this extremely important matter. During the past two years, five people have lost their lives on the A2 near Northfleet and Gravesend in my constituency. Among those five people was a personal friend of mine. It is no coincidence that Members who represent constituencies through which the road runs--my hon. Friends the Member for Erith and Crayford (Mr. Evennett) and for Dartford, as well as other Members who represent areas in Kent, such as my hon. Friend the Member for Dover (Mr. Shaw)--are present for the debate.
The accidents that have occurred--five of which, as I said, were fatal--have been noticed by the local residents and highlighted in the local newspaper, the Gravesend Reporter, the sister paper to the Dartford Times, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford referred. I am grateful to the Government for responding to our concerns and representations, and for commissioning a report on this stretch of road.
I should like to stress especially to my hon. Friend the Minister the problems caused by heavy goods vehicles. The report clearly states that the A2 in my constituency has a very high proportion of heavy goods vehicles passing through. The stress must lie on the words "passing through". North-west Kent is a densely populated area. Ordinary residents use the road in their cars, as do vast tonnages of heavy goods vehicles. It is no coincidence that so many of the fatal accidents have involved HGVs.
I have been encouraged by the Government's response this financial year, as they have given instructions for improvement of the access roads at the Tollgate in Gravesend and at Pepperhill in Northfleet in my constituency. Obviously, the exits and accesses that bring traffic off and on the road can cause accidents through inadvertence or lack of drivers' concentration.
I should also like to highlight the matter of the Little Chef restaurant on the westbound carriageway in the parish of Cobham. Only a year or two ago, there was an accident there, when a sheep transporter proceeding westwards at great speed quite naturally built up speed down the hill with a view to coasting uphill. The difficulty was that the Little Chef was midway. A driver turned into the transporter's path from the access road, the transporter turned over, and sheep--dead and alive--were scattered all over the motor road. That highlights the fact that exit and access roads need adjusting. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will look at the matter of the westbound carriageway and access to the Little Chef.
The Minister for Railways and Roads (Mr. John Watts):
We are all grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Mr. Dunn) for bringing this important subject before the House. Its importance is underlined by the presence of my hon. Friends the Members for Gravesham (Mr. Arnold), for Erith and Crayford (Mr. Evennett) and for Dover (Mr. Shaw), whose constituency is a little further along the A2. I thank all my hon. Friends for their constructive suggestions and comments. My hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Crayford referred to rubbish falling from heavy goods vehicles; clearly, that is unacceptable. He also mentioned what appears to be a fairly thick tome--the report called "Living with the A2". It may be rather rash of me, but I should be delighted to receive a copy and to consider it, perhaps when I am on a long journey to a more distant part of the country than Kent.
As my hon. Friends know, that stretch of the A2 trunk road forms part of the strategic A2-M2 route between London, the M25 and the east Kent coast. Although the M20 is now signed as the main strategic route between London and the M25, the A2 remains an important route to the port of Dover. I was pleased that in our road programme announcement yesterday we were able to reinstate the improvement of the A2 between Lydden and Dover. Recent disruption of cross-channel traffic by other means underlines the importance of ensuring that our ports have good access.
Mr. David Shaw (Dover):
May I say how grateful the people of Dover are that the A2 is to be dualled between Lydden and Dover? We are, however, extremely disturbed that the French lorry drivers' dispute is getting ridiculously out of hand. I heard from the police this morning that some 500 lorries were backed up outside Dover; that could threaten all the roads in Kent with enormous inconvenience. We must ensure that British roads are free for people to travel on and that we are not drawn into that outrageous dispute.
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