---

A419 and A417

My hon. Friend has touched on an important point. When roads are closed, many of the turns on and off are more than dangerous. When two HGVs have met on those single-track roads there has been absolute chaos. People may be walking along a single-track road and drivers who come off the dual carriageway may not realise that they are on a single-track road and be driving far too fast. A serious accident is waiting to happen. My hon. Friend the Member for Forest of Dean referred to economic prospects. The last missing link is also a bar to our continuing growth and the economic prosperity of businesses throughout Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. The Gloucester business park is one of the fastest expanding business parks in the country, and I urge the Minister, if he ever has time, to have a look at it, because it is a prime example of really good planning close to a motorway and shows how successful a business park can be. However, with today’s modern economic environment and just-in-time deliveries, it is being hampered by the missing link, as are businesses between Swindon and Gloucester, and all economic activity in the southern half of my constituency. It is not just a matter of building infrastructure; economic growth is being hampered. There have been various schemes over the past five years, as the Minister knows only too well. A tunnel and various surface schemes along the way have been investigated. Three years ago, the Minister’s Department discarded the tunnel option, which would have incurred very large capital and running costs. Since then, it has developed a surface scheme for a dual carriageway which largely follows the layout of the existing road. The Department’s consultants, WSP, have been working closely with statutory environmental bodies to minimise any negative impact of the scheme on the environment, particularly the area of outstanding natural beauty and the aquifer. I am encouraged by the positive feedback about that process, because as the Minister knows, and as my hon. Friend the Member for Tewkesbury certainly knows, it is a technically difficult problem. Traffic needs to be turned 275° going up Brockworth hill in my hon. Friend’s constituency and approaching Cirencester and Swindon in mine. The steep gradients also add to the difficulty. A further dimension to consider is traffic entering the Air Balloon roundabout via the A436 from Oxford. It is not easy to find an engineering solution. Although the latest designs by the Highways Agency’s consultants are not perfect, they at least show some progress and that, crucially, the issue is still live. However, studies, reviews and investigations do not deliver an improved road, better safety, decreased congestion or economic growth. In February, I joined my parliamentary colleagues, the county and district councils and Gloucestershire First in sending the Minister a letter of support for the scheme. It was our intention to have the project included in the national trunk road programme, and more specifically in the targeted programme for improvements. Our aim was hampered, because all transport investment is subject to regional prioritisation. The A417 needed support from others in our region. The vast south-west region has produced its initial transport spending list, and the implementation plan for transport is part of the regional spatial strategy, as the Minister knows. The spending list includes our scheme, but only under its third most important priorities—projects after 2016. Most schemes that are not in the programme will see no further work, even in terms of planning, for the next five years. Even the Highways Agency would be uncomfortable with that decision. The Government office for the south-west and the Highways Agency appear to acknowledge that the plans may not have recognised important road schemes on the periphery of the region, and also on the periphery of three other regions. I am sure that the Minister appreciates the area’s vast geography, but it is worth noting that Chipping Campden, a pretty market town in the north of my constituency, is closer to the Scottish border than it is to Land’s End at the end of the south-west region. That is the difficulty with making decisions in such a large region. On the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Forest of Dean, in a largely sea-locked region, road links are crucial to regeneration and economic prosperity. Although the Highways Agency is sympathetic to our plight, the prioritisation process is new, and many admit that it needs further development and refinement. The South West regional assembly has not recognised the vital link that the road provides for my constituents, the rest of Gloucestershire, the south-west region, and the regions of the south-east, west midlands and Wales, which adjoin my constituency and those of my hon. Friends the Members for Tewkesbury and for Forest of Dean. I am concerned that the road’s poor safety record and the fatalities along it will grow as car numbers rise inexorably and the road quality deteriorates. How else might we proceed? If the project is not accorded the national prominence that it deserves, I hope that it will be considered under the new study pool scheme. The Highways Agency is working on a review of the A417, which it aims to deliver to the South West regional assembly by about the end of the financial year. If we fail to press the regional assembly and fail to secure a place for the last missing link within that study pool, the project may be dead for at least 10 years. In order to improve and protect lives and build prosperity for Gloucestershire and the rest of the south-west, I urge everyone present to help me to add pressure to secure a better road. Those parts of the A417/419 with concrete road surfaces are incredibly noisy, and they blight villages along the route. Following an earlier Government pledge to resurface 13 major road surfaces in that category, a letter dated 9 April 2003 from the then chief executive of the Highways Agency, Mr. Tim Matthews, stated:"““The results of the noise survey showed the current noise levels on the A417/19 are 5 decibels greater than predicted at the time of the Public Inquiry and””—" critically—"““this stretch of the concrete road has therefore been included in the first phase of the concrete stretches to be resurfaced between 2004-2005 and 2006-07.””" Despite that assurance, however, in answer to my parliamentary question of 28 November 2005, the Minister said:"““Following detailed scrutiny of departmental and the Highways Agency’s budgets””—" we all know what is coming—"““Ministers agreed that the resurfacing of roads ahead of a maintenance need, for noise alleviation reasons, would not be allocated funding...While the Highways Agency will continue to consider remedial measures, these will have to take their turn in the regional priorities for trunk road improvement schemes. The A417/A419 will be re-surfaced when maintenance need dictates and, if this is during the life of the DBFO contract, then the DBFO company will carry out the work and be responsible for the costs.””—[Official Report, 28 November 2005; Vol. 440, c. 133-134W.]" Why that monumental change of heart? The Government’s decision is particularly severe, because the road was the first PFI road to be built in the country. One might expect 20 years of life for the concrete surface before it requires routine maintenance. Meanwhile, my constituents in those villages continue to be blighted. I have taken up more than enough of the Minister’s time. I am delighted to see him here, and I hope that he will have some good news for my constituents.