12.12.06 TSLM Press Release:

Council Leader praises Al Gore film about climate change but supports thousands of extra tonnes of climate-damaging greenhouse gases in Lancaster
 

Speaking last night at the Duke’s in Lancaster after the showing of Al Gore's film “An Inconvenient Truth”, Cllr Ian Barker, leader of Lancaster City Council, agreed that climate change was a serious threat and that the City Council was committed to intervene to address the problem and reduce the scale of the threat. At the same time he repeated his support for the Heysham M6 Link Northern Route, which is forecast to produce an extra 24 million tones of highly damaging greenhouse gases (1), and for the car-intensive canal corridor development, which will increase emissions even more.

Speaking today David Gate, Chair of Transport Solutions for Lancaster and Morecambe (TSLM), who favour alternatives to road building, said:

“Councillor Barker clearly wants it both ways. He claims that the Council is taking action on climate change and at the same time he is very energetic in his support for two hugely damaging schemes (Heysham M6 Link and canal corridor) that will add huge amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Cllr Barker's response to Al Gore's film only encourages those damaging trends which Gore described so convincingly.

“Recently, we have had two wake-up calls. The Stern report warns that we must cut emissions. The Eddington report warns that we can’t cut congestion by building more roads. We must heed these warnings and stop these destructive schemes.”

Notes
(1) Major Scheme Business Case (Lancashire County Council) July 2005 Section C.1.3.3: CO2 23,514 extra tonnes pa, NOx 140 extra tonnes pa, PM10 4 extra tonnes pa, which it values as a disbenefit of £1.02 million pa.