Roads

DEVON County Council and the LEP has published an important report on the need to improve the A303. This road serves as a vital route into the South West from London and last week I met up with the LEP to discuss their proposals.

The case for dualling the single carriageway on the A303 is compelling.

Traffic accidents, road works, flooding and the weight of traffic often bring the route to a standstill. The impact on business and tourism is significant.

A survey of 650 businesses carried out by the LEP shows that across the region 89% of them felt that the unreliability of the road was having a detrimental impact upon trade.

The importance of these problems for tourism in particular should not be underestimated — a sector worth over a £1 billion in Devon alone.

Where poor infrastructure constrains businesses it also has an impact on local wage levels and rural poverty — Devon has an average annual wage level of £25,000 that is amongst the lowest in the country and compares with a national average of £33,000.

It is also worth noting that the population of the peninsular (currently 2.2 million) is growing faster than any other region.

The schemes proposed by the Councils and the LEP will clearly require significant infrastructure funding — but this is just the kind of expenditure that the country needs to get the economy expanding.

The government has recently pledged an additional £3 billion in national infrastructure and it is my mission and that of other MPs in the region (of all parties) to do our bit to persuade the government to put some of that funding our way.

I will continue to work towards this in Westminster.

If you have any thoughts or comments please do get in touch.