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Motorways and Trunk Roads (Litter)

I will discuss the different types of roads, as I think that it will put my comments in a little more context for the hon. Gentleman. Roadside litter is a national problem. It is unsightly. It pollutes our environment, blocks drains and endangers wildlife. It also presents a risk to service providers carrying out their maintenance duties and to public health. It is composed not just of crisp packets and sweet wrappers thrown from vehicles but of large items that have accumulated in lay-bys or been illegally dumped. Fly-tipping at lay-bys on trunk roads is an ongoing problem. Large items such as tyres, beds and sofas are regularly dumped. I know, for example, that it is a particular problem on the A11, A12 and A14. The Highways Agency regularly reports such accumulations to the relevant local authority. Responsibility for clearing highway litter and sweeping carriageways is governed by the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Under the Act, the Highways Agency is responsible for litter collections on motorways in England, but responsibility for litter collection on the vast majority of all-purpose trunk roads, or A roads, rests with the appropriate local authority. The task of clearing litter from motorways in England is undertaken by the Highways Agency's service providers, which are required under their contracts to meet the standards set out in the Environmental Protection Act. I cannot provide a specific cost for the collection of litter from motorways, as the task is included in the overall maintenance duties of the Highways Agency's service providers. As for the trunk roads, the task is undertaken by local authorities. The constant need to clear litter from roads diverts valuable resources away from road maintenance and repairs and places a financial burden on central Government and local authorities. Responses to the Highways Agency's road user satisfaction survey rate reflect the central importance of keeping roads free of litter, and litter features frequently as a topic in customer correspondence received by the Highways Agency. A recent study by a major motoring organisation showed that 88 per cent. of its members feel angry about litter louts who throw rubbish onto our roads and motorways. To counter litter on trunk roads, the Highways Agency works collaboratively with local authorities, whose responsibility it is to collect litter from such roads. For example, when the Highways Agency has traffic management in place on trunk roads for other works, if practical it notifies the relevant local authority so that litter picking activities can be planned to coincide with that so that disruption to the travelling public is minimised. In the west midlands, traffic management has been shared on 51 occasions on various routes during periods of routine maintenance or other works since July 2009, 12 of which have been since January this year. In the south-west, the local authority took advantage of the Highways Agency's traffic management to clear litter during the work to improve the A303 between Willoughby Hedge and Mere. The Highways Agency's service providers monitor the whole motorway and trunk road network for cleanliness, with special attention being paid to areas of slow-moving traffic and places close to service areas. Some of those factors may be relevant to the geography the hon. Gentleman described. When they have concerns about the amount of litter on a particular trunk road, they contact the relevant highway authority and ask for the litter to be cleared. On some parts of the trunk road network, the Highways Agency is actively working with local authorities to reach agreements on litter picking duties, whereby the Highways Agency collects litter from the trunk roads on behalf of the local authority or provides the traffic management for the local authority to do so. Those are local arrangements and are not part of a general policy.