Representation by Anna Bryant
- Date submitted
- 22 February 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The stated aim of the project is to reduce congestion at the Dartford Crossing. However the proposal for the LTC does not achieve this aim, as it does not alleviate the problems at Dartford in the long term. It is proposed to spend £8bn+ on the LTC with no budget allocated to the Dartford crossing. After the LTC has been completed, the Dartford crossing will remain over capacity, with the issues we see today remaining, with no plan to address it. The option to build an additional crossing at Dartford was summarily dismissed at the beginning of consultation, although it is cheaper and has less environmental impact than the LTC (no Greenbelt/AONB impact). There needs to be a joined up roads strategy for Kent, and optimised allocation of public funds, which addresses the pressure on the M25 and M20 (no current solution for Operation Stack/Brock) and appropriately deals with the woefully inadequate supporting road structure of the M2/A2/A229.