Road projects need more drive

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Lord Walton calls for road projects in the North East of England to be completed.

Many people in the North East of England were aggrieved that the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Autumn Statement, which provided funding for many transport infrastructure projects in the UK, offered support only for the upgrading of the Tyne and Wear Metro and none whatever for road projects in the entire North East.

In particular, concern was felt over the failure to include any commitment to upgrading the A1 trunk road between Newcastle and Edinburgh. Under a previous Conservative government some 18 years ago, the then minister for transport in the House of Lords, the Earl of Caithness, made a commitment, in response to questions from myself and from the late Lord Jenkins of Hillhead, that ultimately the A1 trunk road would be dualled throughout its length. Subsequently, two substantial schemes were planned to start in 2009 in Northumberland, one between Morpeth and Alnwick, and another at the dangerous Mousen bends between Adderstone and Belford.

Under the last Labour administration, the A1 road in Northumberland was downgraded from being a route of national importance to one of local importance, and in consequence these long-awaited improvements were postponed. Happily, the present coalition has upgraded this route again to being a trunk road of national importance, but they have made no commitment to reviving the schemes which had been due to start in 2009, and there is a strong feeling in the North East community that action must soon be taken to revive and undertake these important developments.

Lord Walton was raised to peerage in 1989 and was a professor of neurology 1968-83