FTA (the Freight Transport Association) has emphasised the importance of key transport infrastructure projectsm, ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), due out on Wednesday 20 October.
Theo de Pencier, FTA's chief executive, says that in its submission to the government, a few weeks ago, the organisation identified a series of schemes that must be spared the axe in the interests of UK's economic recovery and international competitiveness.
"FTA has already made it very clear that cutting capital spending on infrastructure would be a huge mistake, especially for an economy still struggling to free itself from the grip of recession," comments de Pencier.
He points to the Eddington Transport Study, which reveals that congestion represents a huge cost to the economy, likely to be £25 billion more per year in 2025 than it was in 2003, in England alone.
For the FTA, the key roads are
London to Kent Ports Corridor (M20)
South Coast Ports to the Midlands (A34, M40)
London Orbital Corridor (M25)
London to the West Midlands, North West and Scotland Corridor (M1, M6)
Trans-Pennine (M62, M180)
Haven Ports to Midlands (A14)
"The public purse is understandably being tightly held, but the government must not be constrained by previously held dogma in funding its spending priorities. However they are funded, FTA believes that the projects identified in the submission are simply too important to forsake."
