It’s nobody’s right to drive through town

THE people complaining so loudly about the closure of Cheltenham’s Boots Corner need to take a longerterm view.

They seem to assume it is everyone’s right to drive their cars on short journeys across town.

With climate change demanding immediate action as it threatens our civilisation and poor air quality killing 400,000 people a year in Britain it is nobody’s right to do this.

We should all be looking at alternative ways of getting around, walking, cycling or public transport.

As the grandmother of two small children living on the opposite side of town from my daughter, I realise this can sometimes be difficult. I know others have legitimate problems. But we do need to get rid of the mindset that the car is the only way. And I am prepared to bet that most of the drivers crossing town do so only because they see it as more convenient.

The fact the closure of Boots Corner inconveniences drivers and has made it more difficult to cross town by car is actually a good thing, because it will help people to adopt a different mindset, where the car is not their first option.

People living in areas where the closure has increased traffic need to be campaigning not for the closure to be reversed, but for the council in Cheltenham to crack down on excessive car use in the town. We all need to send a strong message to the council. Yes, you were right to close Boots Corner, but now we need you to back up this project by working with the bus companies to improve and increase services, introduce a proper network on safe, connected cycle routes and give pedestrians priority over vehicles whenever possible.

If the scheme fails, it will be because of the Lib Dems’ failure to communicate their plan effectively or to offer people a proper vision of what happens next.

But I realise Tory austerity

(not about to end despite budget promises) has made it much harder to carry out adequate forward planning because the funding cannot be secured.

As for our MP Alex Chalk, I am shocked that he appears to be making political capital out of opposing a Lib Dem scheme which helps reduce car use in the town.

But given that he represents a government that cares so little about climate change that it forces fracking on unwilling communities, supports the expansion of Heathrow, has slashed support for electric vehicles, solar, wind and tidal technologies and is wasting billions on white elephant Hinkley C and vanity road projects destroying protected countryside, what can we expect?

Lorraine Du Feu Cheltenham Green Party