Representation by High Peak Green Party (High Peak Green Party)
- Date submitted
- 13 September 2021
- Submitted by
- Non-statutory organisations
If the purpose of the proposed new road is to resolve the longstanding problems of traffic congestion and air pollution in Glossopdale and Tameside, it fails. Projections for the proposal indicate substantial increases in traffic and related emissions on the A57 Brookfield (31%), A57 Snake Pass (38%), on minor roads - New Road Tintwistle (50%), Norfolk Rd (21%) and Dinting Rd (45%), and small but significant increases on the A6016 Primrose Lane, A57 High St East, Shaw Lane and Cemetery Rd. All these roads have households living adjacent to them and Dinting Road has a school. This comes at a cost of £228 million, not so much less than the £257 million, allocated in 2021-2022 to walking and cycling schemes in the whole of England. Economic benefits to local people would be better delivered by improved access to safe walking and cycling, and by better public transport options. The increase in traffic is also projected to provoke a substantial increase in traffic accidents in an area that already has significant risks. Constructing the new road will emit at least 38,970 tCO2e and the new road, when in use, would emit an extra 116,332tCO2e between 2023-37; over the 60-year assessment period, the scheme would add an extra 399, 867tCO2e. These figures apparently allow for electric vehicles in the traffic modelling. Though small, these amounts are heading in the wrong direction and undermine government’s legal duty to reduce emissions by 78% by 2035, as set out in the 6th carbon budge, and to reach net zero by 2050. Road building can’t provide a long-term solution to traffic problems, but this scheme doesn’t appear to provide much short-term relief either. No lasting solution will be found without a strategy to reduce demand for road use. Such a strategy should include: • Reversing of the centralisation of facilities and services that has degraded many communities • Ensuring that local facilities and services can be reached safely on foot and by bike. • Providing reliable, regular, affordable and integrated public transport • Reducing the need for many journeys by the use of telecommunications. • Reducing commuting by private car by ensuring that workplaces can be reached by public transport or by company-provided transport • Encouraging a large-scale transfer of freight to rail. • Active management of delivery by road o load sharing and return loads. o local authorities to set the weight limits appropriate for their roads. o Local authorities to determine times when deliveries can be made. Such a strategy may seem to require too much change, but reacting to ever-increasing demand by building more roads is not sustainable, especially considering the climate and ecological emergencies we are facing. In addition to the effects on traffic, pollution and carbon emissions, an area prized for its natural beauty will urbanised, reducing access to nature that has proved so important during the pandemic. Wildlife corridors will be disrupted at a time when we should be seeing efforts to reverse the fragmentation of habitats.