Red tape blocks our new roads
May 26 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal
THE Department for Transport is spending less on roads and railways in the North East than it is on administration costs – and the cash available for the region is set to shrink by millions of pounds.
Wage bills and consultancy costs are taking up more Government cash than the needs of North motorists, the DfT annual report has revealed.
Transport campaigners have called for a radical rethink in money management at the department after it was revealed that essential North East transport schemes such as the dualling of the A1 north of Newcastle could have been funded with less cash than it costs to run the money-hungry department.
In the last financial year the Government spent £299.7m on the North’s transport infrastructure.
And while this was lower than any other region, it was also lower than the £315m the DfT spent on administration costs that year, including consultancy costs.
The DfT has insisted the records, titled total spending by region, do not show the full picture as they overlook contributions to local schemes.
However, of the £83m handed to councils, half is actually permission for councils to borrow, and all of it is used for local safety schemes and minor works, and not for improving the North South links essential to closing the UK’s economic divide.
The admissions were contained in the Department’s annual report which showed that spending on roads and railways in North East over the next three years will continue to be the lowest in England.
Last night shadow Tyneside minister Alan Duncan called on the Government to “get its priorities right”.
Mr Duncan said: “These figures are an indictment of the brazen bureaucratic waste of Gordon Brown’s government.
“It beggars belief that the department in charge of keeping the North East moving is more concerned with management and box ticking.
“We learn this only days after the Prime Minister rebuffed a local petition calling for the widening of the A1 – how long will it take to get ministers to recognise their neglect of the North East’s roads?”
The drop in spending and predicted rise in motorway gridlock will come as a bitter blow to transport campaigners who have repeatedly tried to convince the Government that, as the region with the lowest levels of personal wealth, the North East deserved more support.
Instead the DfT is placing its faith in local transport plans, put together by city leaders tasked with finding efficient – and cheap – ways of tackling rising traffic levels.
But the Tyne and Wear local plan does not expect motorists to find it easier to travel to work.
Instead it plans for a growth in congestion that will make every mile travelled take up to 3% longer during peak times over the next four years.
Berwick MP Alan Beith last night said: “The Government needs to give a clear message to businesses, in the region, in the country as a whole, and abroad, that the North East has the infrastructure to attract the inward investment we need by putting money into our roads and rail network.
“We are attracting only 40% of the funding available to the North West and just half of what is available to the South West. This is just another example of Labour taking the region for granted.”
The North East Chamber of Commerce’s head of policy Ross Smith said: “We already expected a reduction in transport spending due to tighter public finances.
“But in the North East we’ve hardly been through a golden age of strategic investment. The key issues with our transport infrastructure are yet to be addressed and the growing delays on the A1 show this is growing more important by the day.”
A spokesman for the DfT said: “The figures only give a partial picture as they do not include Government investment in local transport projects. Government is committed to investing in the regions and spending on road and rail alone in the North East increased by 80% over the six years to 07/08.
