Yorkshire motorists let down by failure to invest

Robert Goodwill, the Scarborough and Whitby MP who was appointed Roads Minister last October, said Britain “has not invested as we should” over recent years in key trunk roads such as the A64 in North Yorkshire, nor in motorways such as the M62 or the M1.

Appearing before the Commons transport committee last night, Mr Goodwill admitted that a recent report by the World Economic Forum, which rated Britain’s roads as only the 28th-best in the world, had been a “wake-up call” for the whole Government.

“Any report like this should be a wake-up call for us to look at out infrastructure,” he said.

“It is unfortunately a fact that we have over a number of years neglected investment in our rail network, our Highways Agency network and to an extent our local road network as well. And we put off too long making a decision on High-Speed Two.”

Mr Goodwill stressed that the UK is still “a first world country” when it comes to infrastructure investment, citing the successful London Olympics in 2012, and said such ranking systems can be somewhat subjective.

But he added: “It does to a degree recognise the fact that we have not invested as we should have over the years.”

Last month David Cameron revealed his own concern about the state of the region’s roads at Prime Minister’s Questions, and promised further action.

“The quality and the capacity of the road system in Yorkshire has been and is a major issue,” the Prime Minister said in January.

“The Government has taken some important steps to help, but I know there is more work to be done.

Mr Goodwill highlighted the case of the A64 as typical of the failure of Whitehall to invest in the region’s infrastructure.

Campaigners have battled for years to have the largely single-track carriageway between York and Scarborough expanded to improve safety and journey times to and from the East Coast.

“There has been a lot of ‘stop-go’ decision-making,” the Minister said, listing various aborted plans on the A64 to address pinch-points, build bypasses and even to dual the entire road.

“In the meantime, nothing has happened at all,” he said.

Mr Goodwill said that because of cost-cutting measures in areas such as welfare, the coalition has been able to treble the road-building budget and that his department now has a “war chest” worth £25bn to spend over the course of the next Parliament on improving the nation’s roads.

“We cannot have this ‘stop-go’ situation, which will have contributed to the slipping down the rankings,” Mr Goodwill said. “I am determined that we will move ourselves back up the rankings by investing this money in a cost-effective way.”

Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney, a Conservative member of the transport committee, cited congestion on the M62 and M1 in West Yorkshire as major problems – and highlighted forecasts which suggest traffic will increase by a further 50 per cent nationwide by 2040.

Mr Goodwill said he accepted the forecasts – which are based upon projected population growth, as people live increasingly long lives – and that they emphasised the need for further investment in British roads.

“In very many cases such as the M62 and the M1, the network does not even meet current demand,” Mr Goodwill said.

“So we’re not only in a situation where we need to put extra infrastructure in place and increase capacity because of projected demand over the next 25 years. We actually need to catch up on roads like the M62 – which I’ve often had the pleasure of being stationary on when travelling across to Manchester.”