Representation by Derbyshire Climate Coalition (Derbyshire Climate Coalition)
- Date submitted
- 16 September 2021
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
In response to the climate emergency, campaigners across Derbyshire set up Derbyshire Climate Coalition in February 2019. This is not aligned to any political party. The coalition is calling for local councils in Derbyshire and Derby to lead and develop plans to make their local areas ‘zero carbon’ by 2030. We object to the scheme for the following reasons: The scheme would emit 399,867tCO2e of additional carbon emissions over a 60year period from 2025. During the critical period up to 2030 the scheme would emit an additional 55,253tCO2e during UK’s 4th carbon budget period (2023-2027) and an additional 29,231tCO2e during the UK’s 5th carbon budget period (2028-2032). No carbon assessment has been made for the period of 2038 to 2050 by the end of which the UK is legally required to achieve net-zero. Quantifiable carbon reductions at the local level are a fundamental part of local transport planning and funding (Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan, August 2021) Carbon emissions must be tested against international and national legislation and guidance including the Paris Agreement, the 2008 Climate Change Act’s legally binding target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the UK Sixth Carbon Budget, science-based carbon budgets from the Tyndall Centre, and the National Planning Policy Framework which requires ‘radical reductions of greenhouse gas emissions’. The scheme would increase traffic, diverting some from the M62. The benefits to most of Mottram (but not all) come at the expense of the rest of Longdendale, Glossopdale and other parts of Derbyshire where traffic increases on many residential and rural roads. This is contrary to national policies for modal shift to walking, cycling and public transport. Modal shift is a strategic priority for the Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan – ‘Public transport and active travel will be the natural first choice for our daily activities…We will use our cars differently and less often’ – but the scheme would increase car dependency. The natural world is also in a state of emergency, with the net loss of biodiversity in the UK continuing. The scheme involves fragmentation, loss or displacement of diminishing wildlife habitats such as wet grazing meadows and of protected species, such as bats and barn owls. The impacts on the rich and diverse wildlife are minimised because species are considered only of ‘local value’. Conserving and enhancing local wildlife as well as the rare is essential to nature’s and our survival. Encroachment of development on the countryside must be stopped if biodiversity loss is to be halted and reversed. The applicant has failed to scrutinise alternatives that would avoid all the adverse impacts the Link Roads would impose on local people and the environment. De-trunking of the A628T corridor with a Park-wide ban on through traffic of heavy lorries, substantial improvements for safe walking and cycling, and for buses throughout Glossopdale and Longdendale would reduce traffic and carbon emissions and allow people to travel without needing a car.