Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

Pledge to resurface M25 may not be kept

Crispin Blunt challenges Ministers to honour their promises

Crispin Blunt has today written to the Deputy Prime Minister and to the Secretary of State for Transport to ask if the Government will honour its commitment to resurface all concrete motorways by 2011. In July 2000 John Prescott announced the Government’s 10-Year Plan which included a promise to resurface 60% of the road network with quieter surfaces by 2011 – including all concrete roads. This promise is threatened by the current spending review. Archie Robertson, Chief Executive of the Highways Agency, has stated in a letter to Crispin Blunt that progress would “depend on the outcome of this review”. Stephen Ladyman MP, Minister of State at the Department for Transport acknowledged that the earlier 2004 postponement was “disappointing news for those affected by road noise”.

With less than four years until the promised completion dated of March 31st 2011 there is still no plan in place to resurface the M25 between Junctions 8 and 10. Residents in Walton-on-the-Hill in particular have had to endure high levels of noise pollution from the motorway made much worse by the use of a concrete surface.

Speaking earlier today Crispin Blunt MP said:

“The new spending review threatens to undo the Government’s commitment in the 10-year plan. There was an unequivocal commitment to resurface the concrete on the M25 by 2011. This is not some remote part of the network but a key part of the busiest motorway in Europe. Archie Robertson has recognised there was a promise even if the Minister avoids this. I have today written to John Prescott who was responsible for the 10-year plan and to the Secretary of State for Transport, Douglas Alexander MP, to ask for their reassurance that the promise made in July 2000 will be kept and that resurfacing of the M25 will begin in time to finish before March 2011 and will not fall victim to the government’s mismanagement of the nation’s finances in the meantime.”