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Hastings & St. Leonards on-line community newspaper

Graffiti on the sea wall at St Leonards, now mostly covered by pebbles.

Urgent national road policy consultation

According to the Campaign for Better Transport, the government plans to spend £30bn on building 190 new roads nationwide. If you think it’s not the right time for this, writes HOT’s Zelly Restorick, let the government know – urgently. The deadline for responding is Wednesday February 26.

Observing the roads, it seems to me that if money is to be spent in this area, the existing ones need to maintained first, before new ones are built.

My other concern is that the 770 miles of suggested road construction will pass through 395 Sites of Specific Scientific Interest, 234 wildlife sites, 54 ancient woodlands, 7 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, 4 National Parks and 3 National Nature Reserves. What a mockery, eh? So much for protection.

The Government has published a draft National Policy Statement aimed at building new roads for 40% more car, van and lorry trips by 2040.  You can see it in full here. 

According to the Combe Haven Defenders, “the new policy would allow thousands of extra lanes of road capacity, increase car dependency and choke our towns and cities with traffic we could otherwise avoid. The Government’s own evidence shows people are already choosing better ways to travel where they can: traffic UK-wide is now lower than it was ten years ago.

Most outrageously, climate pledges are brushed under the carpet with a clause that prevents campaigners objecting to road projects on the grounds of carbon emissionsSaying that other policies will ‘offset’ the impact of more car travel, the draft policy tells planning examiners to ignore carbon emissions when making decisions.”

Want to object? Please take a couple of minutes to object: you can do so here

Thanks for your time and energy in reading this and responding.

PS If anyone knows the name [or pseudonym] of the artist who produced the Baby and the Bulldozer graffiti, please let me know and I can credit them for their message. Appreciated.

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Posted 17:33 Tuesday, Feb 25, 2014 In: The HOT Planet

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