THE SCOTTISH ECONOMY • SIR,—On reading Mr. Stephen Fay's most
thot.ght- ful article on the Scottish economy, I was sorry to find that a matter which is bound to have a marked bearing on the development of the economy in sears to come has been mentioned only, so to speak, in passing. This is the necessity of providing adequate, fully-modernised roads suitable for carrying the much heavier volumes of traffic which can he ex- pected by the mid-1970s.
New industries are, indeed, needed to balance the old and not replace them, as Mr. Fay says. This new development would undoubtedly be encouraged by the provision of good roads. Not only do better roads reduce transport costs; as my Federation's late vice- chairman, Mr. C. T. Brunner, pointed out in his Paper, The Economic Justifi4ation of Roads, they encourage industry to expand' and disperse, with a consequent increase of regional production and, thus, of general prosperity.
Inexplicably, the Toothill Report revealed a most complacent attitude towards the announced Scottish road programme. This was all the more surprising in the light of the increased production of vehicles which had been embarked upon. In addition, the Re- port was silent on the tourist aspects of road de- velopment, and on the amenity importance of this to the recreational activities of the population, espec- ially in the heavily industrialised areas. Studies that my Federation has made of road pro- grammes—those for England and Wales as well as for Scotland—show they must be at least doubled to meet traffic requirements. In the case of South Wales, a recent independent survey pinpointed road inadequacies with somewhat startling clarity.
My Federation is firmly of the opinion that a similar survey of Scotland would throw fresh light on the problem as a whole.
26 Manchester Square. W
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