Representation by Lesley Grahame
- Date submitted
- 14 June 2021
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
A. Increasing road capacity increases traffic, and fails to support the aspiration to shift travel mode from car to active travel B. Committing to new roads without knowing how our post-covid travel patterns will change is hasty, ignores up to date evidence and is likely to waste vast amounts of money and irreplacebale open land C. It is at best spurious to ignore up to date evidence about travel patterns while at the same using modelling based on the completion of other road schemes, which do not have current planning permission. D The relationship between road schemes, and their cumulative impact on land use and biodiversity loss needs to be examined E. Traffic modelling based on 2015 is clearly out of date F. The loss of trees, bats and wildlife habitat is simply not justified G. The cumulative impacts on biodiversity & habitat loss, carbon emissions and climate require full assessment The recent judgement of Pearce v Secretary of State BEIS [2021] demonstrates that the Courts accept the importance of cumulative environmental impact assessment. H. Increasing carbon emissions go against the letter and spirit of the Paris agreement, the legally binding target under the Climate Change Act 2008 and the need to stay within the 6th carbon budget I. The nationally significan babastel bat colonies merit protection