Section 13(2) of the Roads Act 1993 places a legal responsibility on local authorities for the maintenance and construction of regional and local roads in their areas. It would not be in the best interests of the road network to accept an amendment that would give priority to one type of road over others. This would be inflexible. It would interfere with the local democratic decision making process currently operated by local authorities. I would not wish to introduce any legislative rigidities or inflexibilities into the funding programme for non-national roads. We are accused too often of not giving sufficient power to the local authorities. This is a matter for local authority members to decide. These tertiary roads will receive attention in the future and I await with interest the findings of the new pavement study on this category of road.