Tories to raise M-way speed limits

Motorway speed limits would be increased to 80mph under a Conservative government, the Tories have said.

Under a raft of transport policies to be unveiled later this month, shadow transport secretary Tim Collins will also pledge to abolish the controversial M4 bus lane and scrap speed cameras on all roads apart from genuine accident blackspots.

Unnecessary road humps and road tolls will also be abolished, the Tories will pledge.

Mr Collins said the M4 bus lane introduced in June 1999 was a "nonsense generating congestion".

"We will stop raising money from cameras for police to buy more cameras that encourage unsafe slow-down-speed-up driving and increase exhaust pollution."

The Tories would raise speed limits "where appropriate", he told the Evening Standard.

"The present motorway 70mph limit could go up to 80mph. Simultaneously, some other speed limits could come down."

He added: "In 2001, not one inch of tarmac increased England's road network, for the first time since tarmac was invented in the 1860s. Yet UK taxpayers contributed to improving roads in Scotland, Ireland, Italy and elsewhere in the EU - even in Iraq."

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