In their response to the Eddington study, Getting Around, the Conservatives also accused the government of "making the mistake of scrapping Conservative plans for road improvements" when Labour first came to power, adding "we will need to increase the capacity of our road network, and in some places build new roads".

Also, at the Green Alliance annual debate, in response to a question about the Newbury Bypass, David Cameron said that (contrary to all the evidence) the bypass was a great success (see below).  David Cameron also backed roadbuilding in his acceptance speech as leader of the Conservative Party: "I want to build more roads... we need a concerted programme of road building".  Meanwhile John "Odd" Redwood who is chairing the Competitiveness Commission for the party, has been making repeated calls for more roadbuilding: "People have to remember... that road capacity in the right places is a green policy," (Financial Times, 14 September 06).  Whilst welcoming the Conservative Party recognising the importance of climate change, we must also remember the green noises Labour made when they needed our votes to come to power, and look where that got us! 

If you would like to write to the Conservatives about roadbuilding, traffic growth and CO2 you can write here: camerond@parliament.uk

Newbury Bypass (Berkshire)
 
A fourth report has come out which concluded that traffic is as bad, if not worse, in Newbury since the infamous bypass.  The latest report is by Trafficmaster, which concluded that the congestion on the A339 is the third worse in the country!  We don't like to say we told you so, but....
See:

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=3447

The first report which found the high traffic growth, and showed how Newbury hadn't benefited from the bypass, was in 2004 by Atkins for West Berkshire Council. The second and third reports used Highways Agency one and five year evaluation studies and were produced for CPRE and the government's Countryside Agency in 2006.  The congestion in town was always mostly local traffic and the bypass has made no difference to congestion, in fact causing traffic to rise. Accidents have also increased.

Tell the Transport Minister to scrap the roads programme. 

Road Block has printed 1000s of postcards to send to Douglas Alexander telling him that roadbuilding fuels climate change.  You can either download the cards from our website here - http://www.roadblock.org.uk/

Or you can email saying how many you would like (send us a donation later to cover the postage), or send us an SAE telling us how many you would like.  Write to: Road Block, 12-18 Hoxton St, LONDON, N1 6NG. 

Info on this webpage comes from Road Block - get their regular mailings here.