Norris backtracks over Newbury bypass

Steve Norris, the former transport minister, today gives his backing to anti-roads protesters and admits the countryside devastated by the Newbury bypass could have been left alone.

Britain should no longer "pander to infinite traffic growth", Mr Norris says in a BBC Panorama inquiry on gridlock on the roads to be broadcast tonight.

Mr Norris, a former car salesman, is leaving Parliament this election to become director general of the Road Haulage Association. He was transport minister during the eviction at Newbury, but has been widely acknowledged as having toned down the Government's roads-obsessed transport policy.

Admitting that the wrong route was chosen for the controversial Newbury bypass in Berkshire, Mr Norris told Panorama: "I believe we could have left all this countryside alone...I don't think this route should have been used."