Private Eye 1545 reported that the Westminster Tory government tried some environmental sleight-of-hand in sanctioning a new road scheme in the English Midlands.
A last-minute out-of-court admission by the government that transport secretary Grant Shapps broke rules when authorising a controversial Derby road scheme may have kept evidence out of the public arena - and crucially out of the sight of campaigners seeking to halt much of England's five-year, £27bn roads programme.
Last week, expert witnesses for the campaigners claimed total carbon emissions from the roads programme's various schemes would be muh greater thanthe government had indicated. The court case, due in the summer, will hinge on the schemes' compatibility with the UK's commitments on climate change - the same topic that scuppered the road scheme in Derby.
Local residents were about to start court action on the A38 expansion when the government admitted Shapps had given the scheme the go-ahead without explaining how the cumulative impacts of that and other new roads fitted in with climate-change targets. Had the case gone to court, the defence may well have revealed information about the government's rationale on carbon and roads.
Are the supposed environmental benefits of the M4 Relief based on now-discredited assumptions?
No comments:
Post a Comment