PRESS RELEASE

21 October 2002

Secretary of State passes buck on the Coulsdon Relief Road

Richard Ottaway, Conservative MP for Croydon South, has asked the Secretary of State for Transport for an assurance that the Government will provide enough funding for the Coulsdon Relief Road to be built. No such promise was forthcoming. (See House of Commons Hansard below)

Richard Ottaway says:-

"I have been lobbying for the Coulsdon Relief Road ever since I became MP for Croydon South in 1992. I was delighted when the Road was given the green light in July 1998. Since then, responsibility for this project has been passed to the Mayor of London who was saying that he had not been given sufficient funds from central Government for it to go ahead."

"Predictably the Government has said that it is up to the Mayor to decide what he spends his budget on. This state of affairs, with everyone blaming everyone else, cannot continue. Coulsdon needs this Relief Road and I call on the Government to ensure the Mayor has sufficient funds."

ends.

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House of Commons Hansard Debates for 15 Oct 2002

Richard Ottaway : The Secretary of State will be aware that the A23 Coulsdon relief road in my constituency was one of the 34 projects announced by the Government in July 1998. He will also be aware that responsibility for building that road was transferred to the Mayor of London in 2000. In 2001, the Mayor said that he could not build it because the Government had not given him enough money to do so. Now that the Mayor is looking at it again, can the Secretary of State assure me that the Government will provide enough funding for that project to be built and that there will be no excuses about it being a matter for the Mayor?

Mr. Darling: I am not certainly going to get into the position where the Mayor comes to me every time that he has run out of money and says, "Please give me the money to meet all my commitments." The hon. Gentleman very fairly recognises that that road is the responsibility of Transport for London. The Government give TFL its budget-it is a significantly increased budget-but the Mayor, who is democratically elected, has to decide what are his priorities. We cannot be in a position where he simply spends the money and then comes back to the Government saying "Please pay up." No Government of whatever political colour would ever get themselves into that situation.