The Times - "Drivers in worse jam as traffic plan fails"

Sir,

It was disappointing to see your article on congestion [Drivers in worse jam as traffic plan fails, Fri 9 May] ignored the information provided by the Highways Agency.

To claim that a publicly available report, the publication date of which was pre-announced, was 'buried' is patently nonsense.

It is usual practice to publish reports on the same subject together. This ensures that a full and frank picture is made publicly available.

Whilst we agree it is disappointing we are not currently on track to meet our congestion target, we are seeing some positive results.

Since June 2007 there has been an improvement in journey time reliability on motorways and major A-roads, as well as a decrease in congestion on roads in our towns and cities over the last three years.

The Government is investing heavily in tackling congestion and making major improvements to roads.

As part of this we are already implementing innovative new measures, like opening up the hard shoulder to traffic during peak periods and using new technology to give advance warning of motorway jams.

Tom Harris MP
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport