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Dept for Transport

Answer

Virginia Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what criteria he uses to determine whether a road has (a) national and (b) regional significance; [208215] (2) whether (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department have visited Hindhead to assess the proposals for the A3 Tunnel; and what factors led him to decide that the A3 between Portsmouth Harbour and London did not have national significance. [208217] Mr. Jamieson: The Government's consultation paper--"Devolving Decision Making: A Consultation on Regional Funding Allocations"--set out our proposals to establish regional transport funding allocations. The consultation paper explained that funding decisions on routes of national and international significance would continue to be made on a national basis. To be regarded as such, a route has to satisfy all of the following criteria: To have average daily traffic flows, along the length of the route, of more than 60,000 vehicles To link at least two of the top 20 English cities by population; or link one of the top 20 cities with an airport/seaport or Wales/Scotland To carry heavy goods vehicle traffic equal to or in excess of 15 per cent. as a percentage of all traffic, as an average along the length of the route To be represented on the European Union's trans-European transport network In some marginal cases we applied these criteria with a degree of flexibility. However, the A3 satisfies just one of the criteria: it provides a link between London and the port of Portsmouth. Consequently, for the purposes of future regional decision-making, the consultation paper proposes that it should be regarded as a route of regional significance. The current ministerial team and I have not visited Hindhead, but we appreciate that improvement of the A3 at this site will deal with a significant bottleneck. We have attached high priority to developing a scheme that will resolve the traffic problems while keeping to a minimum the impact on an area that is environmentally sensitive. Draft Orders for the A3 Hindhead tunnel scheme together with Notices of Intention to grant exchange land certificates published by ODPM/DEFRA, were first published in October 2003. Revised proposals for part of the scheme were subsequently published in May 2004 and are currently being considered at a Public Inquiry, which started on 7 September. The Public Inquiry has concluded much of its anticipated business but adjourned on 15 December until 15 February 2005 in order that the Inspector can hear reaction to further minor proposals that were republished on 17 December. It remains our intention to implement the scheme at Hindhead, subject to completion of the necessary statutory procedures including consideration of the Inspector's report and recommendations. However, in view of the cost of the scheme and available resources it has been necessary to programme it for implementation in the period beyond 2007-08.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

430 c449-50W; 208215;208217

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Finance Planning Transport Roads Tunnels A3 Hindhead

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk