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Mr. Watts: I must not be sidetracked into a foreign industrial dispute, but I can tell my hon. Friend that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport will be in touch again today with his French counterpart.
The A2 also provides access to the important industrial areas of south Thamesside and the Medway towns and, further east, to the tourist centres of Canterbury and the Isle of Thanet; it is also the main link to the rest of the national road network for the ports of Chatham, Sheerness and Ramsgate. It is hardly surprising that it carries such heavy volumes of traffic, as my hon. Friends have mentioned already.
The traffic is fast-moving and flows are high. The A2 carries up to 92,000 vehicles a day and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesham said, some 13 per cent. of that traffic between the hours of 7 am and 7 pm consists of heavy goods vehicles. In recent years, accident and scheme identification studies have been carried out on that length of the A2. The most recent was undertaken earlier this year by Kent county council for the Highways Agency; it shows that the accident rate on that route is relatively high compared with that on a road of motorway standard, which is the nearest type of road with which comparisons can be made.
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That comparison, however, is slightly misleading, since, unlike motorways, the A2 provides direct access to adjacent premises, and motorways have relatively fewer junctions. Access and sight lines were two of the issues that my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford asked me to consider further, and I undertake to do so.
Between 1 January 1993 and 31 December 1995, there have been 285 reported injury accidents on the A2 between the London boundary and the M2. Of those, there have been 12 recorded fatal accidents, involving 13 fatalities, 51 serious accidents and 222 slight accidents. Today, my hon. Friends have reported further, more recent, fatal accidents. Although those figures are higher than the national average rate for motorways over a three-year period, the overall rate for 1995 was lower than in the previous two years. That does not make me complacent, because high accident levels must be tackled.
Many factors have contributed to the cause of the accidents on the A2, including the heavy traffic flows, the large number of HGVs and the high frequency of junctions and accesses to adjacent premises. I am not sure whether it would be feasible to segregate HGVs from other traffic, but I shall take account of that constructive suggestion from my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Crayford when I consider long-term ways in which to improve the road and to enable it to operate more safely. Having said that, the accident study also suggests that many of the accidents could be attributed to driver errors, for which there are no simple engineering remedies. It has been suggested that such errors tend to be more concentrated on the A2 because of the density of traffic and the lack of room for manoeuvre between junctions and accesses, particularly at congested peak times.
The study identified a wide range of options for improvement throughout that length of the A2. Many would require extensive work and would be costly. My hon. Friends will know that the Highways Agency's budget for both national schemes and local network enhancement and safety schemes is constrained, although they can take heart from yesterday's settlement, which took not one penny from trunk road funding and ensured that we will be able to carry forward a £6 billion main programme in the next few years with sufficient funding for three or four major schemes each year.
During the current year, the Highways Agency's funds are fully committed to schemes already in progress to provide low-cost safety improvements, so there is little scope for further major improvements in the short term. However, my hon. Friends will know that we are fully committed to reducing the number of accidents on roads, and we will take action to implement urgent low-cost safety measures where necessary. I am pleased to record that, despite the heavy constraints on our programme and because of the priority that we attach to safety improvement on the A2, the Highways Agency has been able to include some low-cost safety measures for the A2 in its programme of local safety schemes--as my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesham pointed out--in this constrained financial year.
At the Pepperhill junction, the on-slip roads, related merge areas and signing are being improved; at the Tollgate junction, similar works are being carried out to the westbound on-and-off slip roads; and at Cobham junction and Marling Cross junction, improved signing is being provided. The persistent and persuasive
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My hon. Friend the Member for Dartford suggested that we should consider the use of black spot signs and speed cameras in addition to a review of access and of sight lines. I shall give those suggestions further consideration.
My hon. Friends will be aware of the more major improvements now under way between Bean and Pepperhill. Those are associated with the development of Blue Water and are largely being funded by the developer, Lend Lease. The work is being carried out in two phases. Phase 1, which started on 11 November, involves the widening of the eastbound carriageway. The work will take about two years to complete. Phase 2, to improve the A2-B255 junction, is due to start early next year. It will run in tandem with phase 1 and will take about 15 months to complete.
The Highways Agency also has a number of more major proposals to improve the A2 between the A282-M25 junction and the M2. First, the current programme contains the A2-A282 Dartford improvement scheme to improve the M25-A2-A282 junction. If a junction requires such a complicated description, one can understand what the problems are for road users. The junction is becoming more congested and delays are increasing. The main problem arises from the conflict between through traffic bound for the Dartford crossing and local traffic wishing to gain access to Dartford. Also, on the A2 east of the M25 junction 2, there will be insufficient capacity to accommodate existing and predicted traffic demands.
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Our scheme will provide for the widening of A2 up to the Bean interchange, and that will complement the schemes to widen the A2 from Bean to Cobham. The Dartford scheme will also provide for an increase in the traffic capacity of the M25-A2 junction, and will address the road safety problem by reducing queuing on the slip roads. It will do that by providing two dedicated slip roads, one of them on a viaduct above the junction, which will cater for traffic travelling between the Dartford bridge and tunnels and the A2 to the east. That, in turn, will reduce the risk of accidents from through traffic running into queuing vehicles.
Secondly, I announced earlier this year a scheme for inclusion in the national roads programme to widen the A2 between Bean and Cobham. I am sure that my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford will be pleased with yesterday's announcement by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State that, following the Budget settlement, that scheme remains in the main road programme. The first phase of the scheme will increase capacity to four lanes each way on a six-mile stretch of the A2 between Bean and Tollgate. In addition, a second phase between Tollgate and Cobham could, subject to the outcome of statutory procedures, be completed in time for the opening of the Ebbsfleet channel tunnel rail link station.
My hon Friends will also be pleased to hear that the M2 widening scheme between junctions 1 and 4--
It being Two o'clock, the motion for the Adjournment of the House lapsed, without Question put.
Sitting suspended, pursuant to Standing Order No. 10 (Wednesday sittings), till half-past Two o'clock.
Orders for Third Reading read.
Read the Third time, and passed.
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1. Sir David Knox:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he proposes to have discussions with his European Union partners concerning the strengthening of intergovernmental co-operation on foreign policy. [4585]
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Malcolm Rifkind):
This subject is high on the agenda of the intergovernmental conference. We also discuss it regularly on a bilateral basis with our EU partners. I expect it to be raised when the European Council meets in Dublin on 13 and 14 December.
Sir David Knox:
Have any particular areas been identified in which European Union collective co-operation might be helpful in the next few months?
Mr. Rifkind:
Clearly, there is a lot of discussion on the immediate issues. For instance, at the meeting of the General Affairs Council on Monday we had an important discussion on the situation in Zaire and on the ways in which western European countries could work with other members of the international community to help with the difficult problems of that country. That is an example of how Europe can very often make an important contribution.
Mr. Grocott:
Will the Foreign Secretary join his European counterparts in condemning the rigged referendum in Belarus which gives near-dictatorial powers to the President? Will he send a message of support from the British Government to the chairman of the Parliament, Mr. Sharetsky, who has been so determined and courageous in standing up for democracy in that country? What steps can the right hon. and learned Gentleman take with his European colleagues to ensure that a country so newly independent is able to move again down the democratic path?
Mr. Rifkind:
We are deeply concerned by recent developments in Belarus. That is true not only of the United Kingdom and western Europe. Russia has also expressed concern, and a very senior Russian delegation went to Minsk before the referendum to try to encourage a more restrained and constructive approach. Sadly, that has not happened, and we must watch carefully to see how the situation develops. If Belarus does not act in a proper and constitutional way, it will damage its relations with western Europe and will cause increasing concern in Russia.
Mr. David Shaw:
How can we possibly co-operate with France on anything while the French lorry drivers' strike is causing enormous inconvenience to my constituents? There are 500 lorries backed up outside Dover and the French have still not paid compensation for the previous strike. Will my right hon. and learned Friend
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Mr. Rifkind:
I can understand my hon. Friend's deep concern, and we are gravely disturbed by the serious inconvenience to British lorry drivers and others as a result of the industrial action. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport has written to his French counterpart, and I know that my right hon. Friend would agree with my hon. Friend's observations.
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