Archived press release

GREENER TRANSPORT POLICY IN NEED OF CASH

16 December 1996

FOE welcomed the DoT's decision to:

. give local authorities £79 million to spend on 65 local transport packages "designed to promote cycling, walking and public transport instead of the private car" [2];

. allocate funds through the "Capital Challenge" for the Manchester Metrolink Extension to Eccles and the completion of the Robin Hood Line in the East Midlands[3].

However, Friends of the Earth expressed concern that major local public transport projects such as the extension of the Tyne and Wear Metro to Gateshead and the Leeds Supertram were denied "Capital Challenge" funding whereas £95 million was allocated to 14 new road schemes [4].

Roger Higman, Senior Transport Campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:

"Sustainable transport plans need hard cash as well as good intentions. The Government's support for transport packages needs to be matched by a serious commitment to the funding of railways and trams. That commitment is missing at present - largely because so much is still being spent on roads."

He continued:

"The acorns of a greener transport policy, that were planted in previous years are sprouting nicely; but they will need to be fertilised with hard cash if they are to grow into the giant oaks needed to encourage drivers out of their cars."

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] Transport Secretary, Sir George Young, today announced the Local Transport Settlement for 1996. This determines how much grant local authorities receive and how much they can borrow for capital projects like new roads, traffic calming, bus priority and light rail systems in 1997/8 (DoT Press Notice 388).

[2] Three years ago (in 1993), the then Transport Secretary, John MacGregor introduced the "package approach" to local authority funding. Under the approach,local councils bid for integrated "packages" of capital schemes (including traffic management, cycle routes, bus priority etc), designed to encourage people to use their cars less and other modes of transport more. Previously authorities had to bid for each scheme in a package separately - making it impossible to plan traffic reduction measures coherently.

[3] The "Capital Challenge" competition is a new experimental approach to local capital funding whereby money allocated to transport, housing, regeneration and other areas is pooled into one system. All support for major new transport projects this year has been given to projects applied for through the "Capital Challenge"competition.

[4] Friends of the Earth understands that bids were made, through the "Capital Challenge", for the Tyne and Wear Metro extension, the Leeds Supertram but that these bids were turned down. By contrast, bids were approved for the following major road schemes (totalling £95.56 m):

Newcastle access road to industrial park (£5.2 m)
Stoke on Trent Tunstall Northern Bypass (£7.11 m)
Shrewsbury Battlefield Link Road (£6.67m)
Chippenham, Wilts Western Bypass (£6.88 m)
St Austell Distributor Road (£6.9m)
Teignbridge, Devon new Link Road (£2.2m)
Lowestoft Northern Spine Road (£3m)
Kempston, Beds new Link Road (£3.3m)
Southampton A3057 Western Approach dualling (£3.6m)
Newhaven, Suss. Link to port and ferry terminal (£6.8m)
Ramsgate Harbour Approach Road (£25.9m)
Worthing Access Road (£2m)
Grimethorpe, S Yorks Coalfields Link Road (£7.6m)
Normanton, W Yorks Bypass (£8.4m)
[Index]

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