Road Construction Units - Trust Annual Report 1976
Comparison should be made with countries responding more quickly to recent experience. The reduced speed limit in America, is reckoned to save six million gallons of petrol a day and two thousand lives in a year. New roads are not built until they are seen to be necessary within a period of three to five years, and are put out to private consultants. They are not designed by a government department, and this allows a much more flexible approach. The standards adopted in England, with higher design speeds, would not be allowed in America or Canada as these make excessive demands on land. Up to five years ago, motorways alone have taken more acreage than all our National Parks together (ordnance Survey Office).
It has to be remembered that motorists constitute a highly privileged minority. Less than 50% of all families own a car, which for most of the week is driven by only one member, leaving a huge majority of the old the young and the poor, dependant on an ever worsening service of public transport. The opportunities for personal mobility have decreased dramatically in recent years, so that it is now harder for the under privileged to traverse their own locality, than for the motorist to travel hundreds of miles. Motorways are not needed specifically for the transport of goods, which are expected to amount to about 17% of M3 traffic serving the port of Southampton.
The reason why we have fallen behind the thinking of more advanced countries in the matter of road building, is due to the unique position of the Road Construction Units, part of the DoE but staffed partly from officers in local government. They are the sole advisers to successive Ministers and local councils. They plan the roads piece-meal and in secret, handle the legal formalities, set up the Inquiries, appoint the Inspector and handle objections.
They have unlimited funds to maintain large staffs, and in the financial year 1976/77 plan to spend £457,475,000 on roads and motorways alone. (Government Summary of Estimates 1976177, Class VI, VI 1.) These vast sums are drawn from the Consolidated Fund authorised by the Appropriation Acts which are passed each year without debate on individual topics. The last vote authorising motorway construction and the expenditure of £1000m, was taken in. February 1967, and this amount has been long since exhausted.
These methods are unacceptable to a growing number of the electorate, giving the Minister powers to overrule the findings of the inspector, which is the very negation of natural justice.
The sense of injustice and frustration so generated, is calculated to undermine the whole habit of obedience to constituted authority.