Orders of the Day — Roads (Cannock)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 19 Rhagfyr 1973.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Dr Anthony Trafford Dr Anthony Trafford , The Wrekin 12:00, 19 Rhagfyr 1973

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock (Mr. Cormack) for his courtesy in allowing me to make two points. He knows, as does my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary, that I take a slightly different view about the motorway and its necessity. I believe that it is necessary to have a motorway link. Although I personally favoured a different route, the fact is that the over-riding necessity was to have a motorway into the area and to have a decision taken so that local people could make plans for the future.

I regarded the inspector's report as totally useless, because it decided nothing. The whole purpose of a report is to come to a conclusion. No conclusion was reached and a rather vague recommendation was made, thus giving credence to the idea amongst local people that the whole thing was a put-up job and that it was all a foregone conclusion. I share with my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock the view that it was not so.

I should also like to take the opportunity of thanking my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary for his personal courtesy in the way he has dealt with this matter, for the number of times he has seen us, and for the great deal of trouble he has taken over it.

May I ask my hon Friend the Under-Secretary to say something about the green belt in the area which has been designated an interim green belt? The word "interim" has caused a certain amount of alarm locally. I am virtually asking my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary, first, whether he could take a view on this landscaping of the route—I support my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock in this—and, secondly, whether he can reassure local people about the green belt in their area. I am glad that a decision has now been taken. I think that it was right that a motorway should have been decided upon, even though I am sorry about the route chosen. But now that the decision has been made—and I assume that it stands—it is important that the local people should be reassured both about the future of the green belt in the area around the road and about the landscaping of the road itself.