Silverstone is an expensive promise by Number 10

26.07.02

Edward Davey MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, today wrote to the Prime Minister over the decision to accelerate the construction of the Silverstone bypass against Civil Service advice.

Mr Davey's letter comes after the release of former Transport Secretary Stephen Byers' Ministerial Direction which notes that the Prime Minister gave a commitment to the FIA that access difficulties to the Grand Prix would not be repeated.

Edward Davey MP said:

"This one of the most expensive promises a British Prime Minister has made - with no obvious benefit to ordinary people.

"It is scandalous that £8million of taxpayer's money has been wasted against the explicit advice of a senior civil servant and indeed Treasury guidelines.

"The Prime Minister must now make it clear to whom, and on what date, he gave a `commitment' to sort out access problems at Silverstone.

"The fact that the Department for Transport had the information on 16th July 2002 but delayed answering the related Parliamentary Question from Matthew Taylor MP until July 24th 2002 hardly speaks well for Government transparency."


Text of letter from Edward Davey MP to the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London SW1
25th July 2002

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing to you concerning the Government's decision to accelerate the Silverstone Bypass project against the advice of the Civil Service.

I understand from the recently published letter from the former Secretary of State, Stephen Byers MP, to the Chief Executive of the Highways Agency (dated 28th February 2002) that Ministers accepted that the decision on Silverstone 'will not represent value for money against conventional Highways Agency criteria' but that the Government was pressing ahead, against the advice of the relevant Accounting Officer, and issued a Ministerial Direction to that effect.

In that letter, the Secretary of State states that 'the Prime Minister also gave a commitment that those difficulties would not arise again' referring, it would seem, to issues of congestion around Silverstone experienced previously. The then Secretary of State went on to justify the acceleration of this construction project on the grounds of the 'wider national interest.'

I would be most grateful if you could let the public know the following:

1. On what date, and to whom in the FIA, did you give such a "commitment"?

2. What advice did you or other Ministers receive, and from whom, that the "wider national interest" would be served by the acceleration of the Silverstone bypass?

3. What exactly was the "wider national interest" that justified spending an additional £8 million simply to accelerate this project?

4. What likelihood was there that the delaying of the completion of the Silverstone bypass by one year would threaten the Grand Prix staying in the UK when the FIA knew that the bypass was underway and would be completed for next year's Grand Prix?

5. Did you or your office contact the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions to encourage the then Secretary of State to issue the relevant Ministerial Direction?

6. Will you place any correspondence about this matter between your office and a) the DTLR, b) the Highways Agency and c) the FIA in the House of Commons Library?

Yours,

Edward Davey MP