Roads prog. 'still intact', says Watts

Roads Minister John Watts has told the Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors that the roads programme - as established in the 1994 review - is still intact and only its actual delivery has been slowed.

The reply has surprised contractors who had understood that the programme was being reviewed following last year's Royal Commission report.

Jim Turner of the FCEC said: 'There is an element of inconsistency here. John Watts gave a straight answer to a straight question. But in a Lords debate on transport last week Viscount Goschen said roads were being reviewed. There is an element of people not knowing what is going on.'

Watts' assertion that there was a slow-down, however, is certainly borne out by the latest Department of the Environment state of trade figures which show infrastructure orders in the last quarter of 1994 were down a massive 60% compared to the last quarter of 1993 and down 13% on the previous quarter.