Government backs new roads and tolling plans

publication date: Jul 17, 2008

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author/source: Robin Roberts

New toll roads have been given the promise of Government support in the latest road plans announced yesterday.

The Government is bankrolling councils with a £6 billion plan to support widening some roads, introducing hard-shoulder running schemes and encouraging more public transport paid for by road tolls. It will be up to local councils to decide if they want the grant and new transport plans.

New funding has also been announced for our biggest towns and cities, recognising that 80% of congestion is currently in urban areas. This sees eight areas - Bristol, Greater Manchester, Leicester, London, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear and the West Midlands - benefiting from the first allocation of the performance-based £60m Urban Congestion Performance Fund.

Leeds has also won pump-priming funding to join those local authorities looking at tackling congestion through public transport improvements combined with local congestion charging. Cambridgeshire and Reading also receive further pump-priming funds to carry on developing their congestion-busting plans.

Ruth Kelly, Transport Secretary, today announced a £6 billion investment package to improve and make better use of England's motorways and other key roads.

- Up to £6bn in funding for improvements to strategic national roads in the period up to 2014 to cut congestion, support economic growth and improve road safety.

- Further details of how the hard shoulder could be used to provide extra space on the motorway network. We are looking in particular at sections of the motorway network previously planned for widening, and at some new locations including the M3 and M4 approaches to London, the M4 and M5 around Bristol and the M3 and M27 around Southampton. We are also considering how to make best use of the extra capacity, including looking at successful examples of dedicated or tolled lane use in America and hard-shoulder running in Europe.

- Revised cost estimates for the Highways Agency Major Roads Programme, including regional priorities.

- Pump priming funding for Cambridgeshire, Reading and Leeds through the up to £200m a year Transport Innovation Fund to allow them to investigate how they can manage congestion in innovative ways.

- The first tranche of performance-based funding from the £60m Urban Congestion Performance Fund. The first performance payments, totalling £6 million, will be shared between Bristol, Greater Manchester, Leicester, London, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear and the West Midlands.

In Wales, plans for a new southern relief road from the Second Severn Crossing to the west to Newport have been delayed by Government demands for proving benefits and safeguards but it is generally considered this new road will be tolled.

The future proposal and timetable of the scheme is likely to be announced next year.

Commenting, Edmund King, AA president, said, “ The AA is pleased that progress is being made on the roads and we would look forward to studying the detail. 

“We need a host of improvements to combat congestion. We reiterate our view that safety must be paramount when it comes to hard shoulder running and therefore we need to see adequate safe havens and overhead gantries. The M42 scheme worked well as much attention was paid to detail and safety of drivers. 

“Hard shoulder running is not a panacea for all our motorway congestion problems and we still believe that some motorways should be widened as this brings greater capacity and safety benefits”. 

RAC Foundation spokesperson Sheila Rainger said, “Hard Shoulder running is a sensible use of existing capacity. But it is not a substitute for a long-term strategic approach to the UK's road transport needs.

“The Secretary of State says wider use of hard shoulder running will add 800 lane-km to England's motorway network. But the RAC Foundation's report, Roads and Reality, concluded that an additional 600 lane-km of capacity is needed each year to meet the needs of the economy and people's desire for mobility.

“If motorway charging is to be introduced it must be for genuine new capacity, not a part-time spare lane created by opening the hard shoulder.”