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M20 (Ashford-Maidstone)

Volume 25: debated on Wednesday 16 June 1982

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10.

asked the Secretary of State for Transport when he expects work to commence on the M20 link between Ashford and Maidstone.

Further preparation of this scheme will be resumed as soon as resources permit.

Does my hon. Friend appreciate that this section of the road is part of a motorway connecting London with Istanbul and that the only section that is not of motorway standard is the section from Folkestone to Dover?

I am well aware of the importance of this part of the road network in Kent. The M20 will be completed, but our difficulty is that other schemes give better value for money and the current cost of completing the M20 link is somewhere between £45 million and £50 million. We have already done a great deal in the Kent area, and while the A20 can take a great deal of traffic, there are other schemes within my hon. Friend's area and other parts of the country that must take priority over this section of the M20.

In my campaign against the unnecessary coning-off of lanes on motorways, may I ask my hon. Friend to explain why long stretches of the M20 approaching the area referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Sir Albert Costain) were coned off last weekend? How much work was done on that road last weekend and why is it necessary to do it so soon after the motorway was built?

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his continuing campaign against unnecessary coning-off, but I have to tell him that I do not have the detail here on every road in the country. I shall look into the matter and write to him. This is the period of the year when we must complete the repairs, maintenance and reconstruction of our roads that cannot be done in the winter or in inclement weather. That is why in the middle of the summer a higher proportion of our roads will always be under repair than at any other time of the year.

Is my hon. Friend aware of the meeting that I recently had with our right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on this subject, together with members and officials from the Maidstone borough council? Is she further aware of the disappointment over the fact that, despite the friendship and willingness of our right hon. Friend to meet these people, we have not been offered any side road orders, which would expedite the work at no cost, or virtually no cost. If we got on with the side road orders, it would cost nothing and would speed up matters.

I shall look yet again into what my hon. Friend has said, but I have to tell him that before we make orders we must have some prospect of succeeding with a road, otherwise we run the danger for many people of blighting areas that might not necessarily be blighted by the eventual scheme. I shall look into what he says and write to him. I am well aware of how much the completion of the M20 is wanted in Kent, but we have already invested a great deal in Kent's roads and other parts of the country are also crying out for investment.