Countryside Campaigners Welcome Study Of Alternatives To Road Widening

25 October 2007

The Campaign to Protect Rural England’s (CPRE) [1] argument that the Government should consider less expensive and less intrusive options than widening for creating reliable motorways has been accepted. [2]

But they say the Government should go further and withdraw plans for major motorway widenings which threaten the countryside and blight local communities.

CPRE also warns that using Active Traffic Management techniques can only ever be an interim solution. The Government will need to go further if it is to reduce the damaging impact of traffic on the countryside.

Gerald Kells, CPRE’s transport spokesman said:

‘Proposals to control speed and access to motorways could be beneficial, but hard shoulder running still allows traffic to grow on motorways. This increases emissions and other environmental impacts on the rest of the rural network and in our congested towns and cities. Motorways would eventually clog up anyway.’

CPRE says the Government needs to get more serious about investing in public transport alternatives and bring forward serious proposals to manage the demand for traffic. They also need to ensure that all motorway improvements are designed to avoid creating light pollution and other eyesores which damage the landscape. New landscaping is also required on many sections of the existing motorway network to reduce its impact on the countryside. [3]

Gerald Kells concluded:

‘The Government has listened to CPRE’s call for less expensive and intrusive options other than motorway widening to be considered. With the support of local people we have shown that spending large sums widening motorways, such as the M1 and M6, does not solve congestion and simply adds to our environmental footprint. But there’s a long way to go. The Government has to get serious about offering people real alternatives to ever increasing car travel if we are to deliver a sustainable transport network.’

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Bill Bryson. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen.

2. The DfT press release is available at: http://www.gnn.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.aspReleaseID=325249&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromDepartment=False

The report on M42 ATM trial and terms of reference for the Study can be found at: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/tpm/m42activetrafficmanagement/

3. CPRE’s Intrusion maps, published in September, show the extent of urban intrusion across the country and illustrate change from 1960s, 1990s to 2007. The maps show the places which are close enough to towns and cities and major infrastructure such as roads, airports and power stations to be classed as disturbed by visual and noise intrusion. The maps can be viewed at: http://www.cpre.org.uk/campaigns/planning/intrusion/national-and-regional-intrusion-maps

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