Lorry projects get TSG approval
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SPECIAL ATTENTION to road schemes dealing with lorry traffic has been given in the Government's Transport Supplementary Grants settlement for 1983/84, reports PETER STONHAM.
But while the Government has approved spending plans on such schemes, its actual cash aid to the local authorities to implement them has been cut.
The TSG settlement sanctioning local government transport spending of £1,836m — up by 12.5 per cent on the current year's level — includes provision for capital investment of £619m up by more than E100m on the 1982/83 figure.
Transport Secretary David Howell says this will enable County Councils to start some 50 new capital projects, including 35 by-passes and urban relief roads designed to take heavy lorry traffic away from residential areas, complementing the Government's own programme on bypasses on trunk roads.
In spending approved on road maintenance, increased by only five per cent, the Government has made an allowance for 58 lorry action areas as recommended by the Armitage Report. Counties were invited to put forward special schemes of maintenance designed to mitigate the effects of heavy lorry traffic in places where bypasses cannot be constructed.
The actual TSG will be paid by the Government to local authorities on 70 per cent of their transport spending above a threshold level based this year on a figure of £25.59 per head of population. This is a higher figure than last year.
Thus while the Government is encouraging more spending on road schemes arid the lorry action areas, the actual "real money" being handed over to the counties will be down next year. Many counties will therefore have little incentive to push ahead with the schemes the Transport Secretary wants.
The Government said that the cut in grants, from £456m to £450m, reflects the cuts in national insurance surcharge and also the overall Government view that the proportion of local authority expenditure contributed by the taxpayer should be reduced.