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A417 Traffic Improvement Scheme

The hon. Gentleman makes a perfectly valid point. However, I foresee a problem. If the south-west regional transport board does not see this particular road as a priority, what are the chances of other regions, through which this particular section of the A417 does not pass, giving a significant amount of their allocations to the upgrade of the road? If the south-west region will not prioritise it, I suggest to the hon. Gentleman, who knows the local political layout better than I, that it will be very difficult for the other three regions to which he has referred to put their hands in their pockets and surrender some of their own schemes for one that effectively lies outside their borders. However, I might be able to offer something positive to the hon. Gentleman in the one minute that I have left. If the hon. Gentleman, as a supporter of the scheme, does not like the priorities already drawn up by the regional transport board, he has the opportunity in the next few months to try to convince it of the evidence that the improvement should be higher on the region's list of priorities and that other schemes that currently have higher priority should be lower on that list. If the region wishes to change its priorities and include the improvement scheme or any of the lower-cost options in the RFA programme, we will be delighted to accept that advice, subject to the scheme meeting the Department for Transport's value for money criteria. The hon. Gentleman referred to the edge factor, mentioned by my predecessor, and made the point that the geographical position of the scheme may not have helped it within the RFA process. He is right; my predecessor did acknowledge the existence of the edge factor, which may have been an issue in some of the advice that we received from the regions. I do not consider that the edge factor is relevant in this case; if it had been, we would have expected other schemes in Gloucestershire not to have been prioritised. Clearly, that has not happened, as schemes in Gloucestershire have been prioritised. The motion having been made after Ten o'clock, and the debate having continued for half an hour, Madam Deputy Speaker adjourned the House without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.