8.2.07: Stunning admission from promoter of Heysham M6 Link:

Cllr. Tony Martin, Cabinet member for sustainable development at Lancashire County Council, is reported to have said in the Lancashire press this weekend that he was “fighting a loosing battle” against cars clogging up Britain’s roads - and the only answer is getting us onto buses.

He claimed: “The number of cars has doubled between 1983 and 2003 and it is going to do the same by 2023. That is a problem that you cannot fix by just putting in more roads or widening the ones that are there.”

Cllr Martin is the man in charge of Lancashire County Council’s ‘number one transport priority’, the £137 million scheme to build a dual carriageway HGV link from the M6 to Heysham port. He went on to say: “Public transport is the future, whether we like it or not, unless anyone else wants to come up with a better system, which would probably be in science fiction territory.”

David Gate, Chair of Transport Solutions for Lancaster and Morecambe (TSLM), the local transport campaign group, which favours non-damaging alternatives to road-building, like better public transport, said: “We are absolutely stunned by this admission from Tony Martin. People in this district expect the Link to solve our congestion problems. His Council are trying to get £137 million from the Government to build this destructive road, and yet he admits publicly you cannot fix the congestion problem by building more roads! He believes the only answer is getting us onto buses.”

“The Government would look foolish stumping up the cash, given the urgent concern about the environment and the need to reduce emissions, and now this admission by the man in charge of the project. The inconvenient truth for Lancaster and Morecambe is: the loss of 173 acres of green belt farmland, 24,000 tons of additional carbon dioxide a year, and no answer to congestion.”

The Government is at present considering whether or not to call the scheme in for a public inquiry.