THE M5 should have a new road surface because it is too noisy, according to Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff.

He has written to the chief executive of the Highways Agency to ask him to reconsider a decision to delay a new road surface originally planned on the M5 between junction 7, Worcester south and 5, Droitwich.

The Tory MP said nearly 100 Droitwich residents had written to him to express dismay at the situation, which is resulting in high noise pollution.

Highways Agency chief executive Archie Robert-son proposes a delay of at least five years to improvements to the road surface, which Mr Luff says is "devastating" to the local community.

An original pledge to resurface the M5 with a low noise surface was made in April 2003 in a letter from the agency to Mr Luff - but that has been reneged upon, with a new commitment to replace it after the next five years.

Mr Luff said: "I find it impossible to accept that only three years after this commitment has been made, it has now been decided to delay this urgently needed improvement for another five years.

"Frankly, a delay of one or two years might not have been unexpected, but this is a devastating blow to the communities affected by the high levels of noise from what is an increasingly busy road."

The Government is committed to covering about 60 per cent of the UK's trunk road network with low noise surfacing by the year 2010. Highways agency spokewoman Filippa St Aubin D'Ancey said they had been in correspondance with Mr Luff over the issue.

She added: "We are, however, only able to resurface sections of carriageway as a result of maintenance requirements where it's required on safety grounds or as a result of general wear and tear.

"The agency has to make optimum use of finite resources across the whole of England's motorway and trunk road network and we've replied to Mr Luff accordingly."