Alliance against road building

PRESS RELEASE – 24th March 2005

More Roads Mean More Congestion - And More Protest

Road Block has reacted angrily to Alistair Darling's announcement today that another 12 major road schemes worth £1.38 billion will be entering the roads programme [1]. The Government had originally asked that the Highways Agency look at demand management measures instead of building more roads. This announcement demonstrates that the Government is simply catering for traffic growth, instead of looking at ways to reverse this trend, and is not serious about tackling climate change.

Rebecca Lush, of Road Block, said:

"Instead of looking at ways to tackle and reverse traffic growth, the Government has instead added yet another 12 schemes to the roads programme, representing £1.38 billion of wasted money. With transport the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases, this shows the Government is all hot air when it comes to tackling climate change. The roads programme that this Government has built up rivals the 1990s programme which ignited major community protest. Encouraging more traffic growth, trashing the countryside and bringing more pollution to already blighted communities will result in more protests."

"Transport is the most urgent source of greenhouse gases that they must tackle, yet is the area they remain most cowardly on"

Contact: Road Block on 01803 847649 and 07854 693067

Notes to Editors:

[1] Alistair Darling's announcement can be found here: http://www.highways.gov.uk/news/press_releases/general/2005_03_24c.htm

[2] Launched in January 2005, Road Block is an alliance against road building. Please see www.roadblock.org.uk

[3] Every year traffic grows 2%. Traffic is forecast to increase by 40% by 2025 - DfT Future of Transport White Paper 2004

[4] Transport contributes over a quarter of emissions, with road transport representing 80% of those emissions. It is the only sector that is rising, and so is the most urgent area to tackle - DfT Future of Transport White Paper 2004.