4.2.07: £45,000 says the Link is not the answer:

A parliamentary answer from the Department of Trade and Industry has revealed that the government is considering paying £45,000 as a contribution towards a study into an integrated transport solution for the Lancaster and Morecambe District to be carried out by Lancashire County Council. This news comes after Lancashire County Council approved its own plan to build a £137 million dual carriageway across the same district.

This payout was revealed by the DTI last week in the answer to a question in Parliament by local MP Geraldine Smith.

“This news is clear evidence that the massive Northern Heysham M6 Link Road is not the answer to the area’s transport nightmare. Post Stern Review, which warned that we must cut emissions, we are entitled to ask why so much public money is being spent on such a destructive and polluting road before a proper integrated transport study has even been done,” says David Gate, Chair of local transport campaign group Transport Solutions for Lancaster and Morecambe (TSLM).

“This road will only increase traffic and harmful emissions, not reduce them. Some people think that sacrificing the green belt to the Link will end the gridlock, but they are in for a nasty shock. This planned study proves what many people have been saying all along, that the road, forecast to cost £137 million, will not solve the district’s congestion problems. That cannot be ‘value for money’.

“Building the road before a proper study is done is a classic case of putting the cart before the horse. A great many people, including our MP Geraldine Smith, have demanded a public inquiry into this debacle: the Government now has no excuse not to grant one.”