Written question asked by Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone (Conservative) on Wednesday, 17 July 2002, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 24 July 2002. It was answered by Lord Spellar (Labour) on Wednesday, 24 July 2002 on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Dept for Transport

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what his latest estimate is for (a) the commencement and (b) the completion of construction of the A3 at Hindhead; what representations he has recently received about the improvement scheme there; and what further steps must be completed before its commencement.

Answer: Virginia Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what his latest estimate is for (a) the commencement and (b) the completion of construction of the A3 at Hindhead; what representations he has recently received about the improvement scheme there; and what further steps must be completed before its commencement. [71915] Mr. Spellar: There has been no change to the programme for the A3 Hindhead scheme. The Highways Agency is presently assessing bids from contractor/ designer teams to progress the scheme through statutory procedures and construction phases. It is expected that the contract will be awarded in September, that draft orders will be published in the late summer of 2003; and a public inquiry, if required, would be held in 2004. Subject to the satisfactory completion of these statutory procedures, work would start in 2005 and be completed by 2009. Amendments to the preferred scheme as a consequence of on-going consultation with the local community were announced last March. Since then 11 representations have been received about the revised proposals. These were either seeking more information on specific local impacts or about changes in traffic patterns on local roads as a result of the scheme.

Secondary information