John Hayes says Britain must stop building “ugly” roads and in future wants new highways to pass a “beauty test”.
South Holland and The Deepings’ MP is the government’s Transport Minister and believes the past 50 years of road construction have suffered from “intrusive design”.
He said: “As the road network developed, we seem to have cared less and less about good design.
“We grew to accept that roads and motorways must be intriniscally ugly.”
He added: “Our goal is not to just undo the most intrusive road design of the past 50 years. It is to create new aesthetic values that reflect and even magnify the beauty of the landscape.”
Mr Hayes was speaking at an event hosted by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England and the Campaign for Better Transport.
The planned Stonehenge bypass is a good example of what could be achieved, he suggested, and the Boston Manor viaduct on the M4 as one to avoid.
A roads design panel is in Mr Hayes’ thinking, which would including campaign groups such as the CPRE and architects, engineers and suppliers to “enhance the beauty of the cvountryside”.
Meanwhile, fellow Conservative Coun Richard Davies – portfolio holder for highways, transport and ICT at Lincolnshire County Councillor – was a little exasperated at the viewpoint.
Looking at the argument purely from our county’s point of view, he believes problems with bureaucracy and under-funding by years of successive governments of all political persuasions have led to only one construction of note and roads rife with potholes.
He said: “The issue we have is that we need to have a road network that is really fit for purpose.
“In Lincolnshire there has been just one significant road built in my lifetime – the A1073 [improvement scheme, A16 extension to Crowland].”
He added: “If it were the case that we’d had 50 roads built in Lincolnshire and 25 were ugly I could live with that.”
However, Coun Davies is sympathetic to Mr Hayes’ “beauty” viewpoint.
He said: “[John] can be accused of many things but he is not out of touch.
“If the problems with red tape and funding didn’t exist then I would be absolutely in agreement that we don’t build ugly roads.
“However, when I speak to parish councillors they don’t say to me ‘thanks for that bypass but my goodness it’s ugly’, they say ‘when are we going to get a bypass?’
“I just wish someone from Westminster would come out with us for a day rather than relying on the thoughts of advisors and think tanks.”
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