Local Government: Roads
On 10 July Lord Berkeley asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether they will reimburse local authorities for the £671 million cost increases on current road schemes managed by local authorities.
During the course of the Question ....
Lord Faulkner of Worcester: My Lords, does my noble friend accept that the details of a number of road-building schemes have come to light recently as a result of Freedom of Information Act requests to the Department of Transport and that they demonstrate that the cost overruns in a number of cases are almost completely out of control? One example is that of the new crossing of the Mersey, whose cost has risen from £209 million to £390 million. Do not such schemes represent bad value for money and are they not environmentally unsound? Would not the money be better spent on, for example, railway electrification and other public transport provision? read more......