Alliance against road building

PRESS RELEASE – 4th May 2005

FUEL PROTESTS ARE MISGUIDED - CLIMATE CHANGE IS THE REAL CRISIS

"The recent fuel protests are misguided and short sighted" say anti-roads alliance, Road Block. Fuel duty has actually been frozen since 2000, and high oil prices are outside the Government's control. The Government should refuse to be bullied, and stand by its commitments to urgently reduce carbon emissions by raising the duty on fuel immediately.

Rebecca Lush of Road Block said:

"These are the same people who intimidate drivers on our roads, rat run through our villages and are now trying to bully the Government away from solving climate change. They are a selfish minority who are sabotaging any progress on tackling climate change. Every time the Government attempts to bring in any progressive environmental taxes, are we as a nation going to allow these gains to be sacrificed for the short term interests of a minority? This is a classic battleground that all governments are going to have to face again and again - do we place environmental protection above bully-boy tactics? They have had their way since the last time they bullied the government in 2000, and now are trying to grab more for themselves. We urgently need to tackle climate change first."

The facts behind the 'fuel protests'

• There has not been an increase in fuel duty since 2000
• The Fuel Duty Escalator was brought in by the Conservatives in 1993, as a 'green' tax, to try to encourage less road travel.
• The Fuel Duty Escalator was cancelled by the Government in 2000 in response to the last round of bullying from hauliers.
• Fuel taxes in Britain are not the 'highest in the world' as the Road Haulage Association claim. They are not even the highest in Europe - Denmark, Holland and Norway all pay higher taxes.
• In other countries, if other motoring taxes, such as motorway tolls, are taken into account, the UK works out as average.
• Transport accounts for over a quarter of all CO2 emissions in the UK, and is the fastest growing sector, and the only sector still rising, making it the most critical area to tackle. (DfT 'Future of Transport' White Paper, 2004)
• CO2 emissions from hauliers rose by 38% from 1990 to 2002. Road freight accounts for 8% of all CO2 emissions, according to a recently released report from Defra - 'Sustainable Consumption and Production Indicators', 2005 - www.defra.gov.uk/environment/statistics

ENDS

Contacts: Road Block: 01803 847649 or 07854 693067.