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AA calls for new transport secretary to support road funding
Date: Thursday, June 3, 2010
Newly-appointed secretary of state for transport, Philip Hammond, should not make the mistake of switching funds from road to high-speed rail says AA president, Edmund King.
“The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats seem keen on expensive high-speed rail, yet roads have the majority of problems and the majority of transport users,” he says. “We would not support road funding being diverted to a high-speed rail project.”
While King welcomes an initiative to create a nationwide charging network for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, he’s unsure how the new coalition government will address traffic congestion and the chronic under-funding of highway maintenance. He’s also concerned that transport secretaries don’t usually stay long enough to understand the issues associated with their job.
“We’ve had 13 transport secretaries in 22 years so on average they have served only about 20 months each,” he points out. “Yet it can take a new transport secretary approximately 12 months to get up to speed with their brief.
“Transport is essential for the country and our economy, yet in the past has been treated as a merry-go-round for ministers to hop on and off,” he continues. “Perhaps we need a fixed-term transport secretary as well as a fixed-term parliament.”
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