Put public transport ahead of road plans

Environmentalists in Bristol Province, (Gloucestershire, Greater Bristol, North Somerset, Somerset and West Wiltshire) are calling on district councils, like Bath and North East Somerset, to scrap the road building and widening plans in the Joint Local Transport Plan.

They say that any available funds must be used to improve public transport, walking and cycling.

The reason this is important is that the Joint Local Transport Plan for the West of England (Greater Bristol), Weston-super-mare and Bath contains plans for 10 new roads and five big road-widening schemes.

These plans will damage the countryside, increase traffic density, add to pollution with implications for health, and increase carbon emissions with implications for atmospheric heating, when the district councils in WECA (Greater Bristol) and North Somerset District Council have all four declared climate emergencies.

The Transport Plan also contains big plans for public transport, but the money to fund those plans has not been secured.

B&NES must ensure that the road building is stopped and the money used for improved public transport.

Where there is road widening, it should be in order to provide dedicated cycle lines separated from vehicles and pedestrians.

This is an area where B&NES can show that it is environmentally aware. Robert Craig Weston-super-mare