Not content with the white elephant that is the increasingly costly-looking Heysham Link, local councils could be looking to build even more roads in Lancashire, rather than invest in more sustainable transport schemes.
The Campaign for Better Transport has just completed research into how new ‘Local Transport Bodies’ are distributing funding and the
results are really worrying. They have recently published over a billion
pounds’ worth of proposals: almost two thirds of these are purely for
road building or widening and no dedicated cycling schemes have been
prioritised anywhere in the country.
These decisions are also being taken behind closed doors: only twelve
out of 38 Local Transport Bodies have done any consultation at all.
“Urgent action is needed,” argues CFBT. “There is just a small window
of time before these plans gain government approval.
“We’ve set up an
action on our website to make it easy for you to contact the Transport
Minister asking him to send back any plans from Local Transport Bodies
where they haven’t consulted or have just rehashed old road schemes.