Alliance against road building

PRESS RELEASE – 28 May 2006

ROAD BLOCK TENDERS TO DfT FOR CO2 ANALYSIS WORK

Road Block has today written to Transport Minister, Douglas Alexander, to bid for work to analyse the CO2 impacts of DfT approved local road schemes after Minister Gillian Merron claimed this work would be too expensive.

Lib Dem Transport Spokesman Alistair Carmichael had asked the Secretary of State for Transport on 20 June "what assessment he has made of the carbon dioxide impact of each road scheme which he has approved since 2000 through the local transport plans". In a Written Answer, Gillian Merron refused to disclose this information, responding that it could only be supplied "at a disproportionate cost".

In the tender letter, Road Block Coordinator Rebecca Lush says she is "quite staggered that this essential work has not already been carried out", and states that the work is "relatively simple". She says that as the work is so essential Road Block is happy to do the calculation at the knock-down price of just £150.

Before approval every local authority road scheme has to go through the New Approach to Appraisal (NATA) which requires an assessment of the scheme's CO2 impacts in a single sided Appraisal Summary Table (AST). Approximately 90 local road schemes have been approved since 2000, and the Department therefore should have 90 ASTs. Road Block has offered to sit down with the 90 ASTs and a calculator to help the Department acquire an understanding of the climate change implications of their decisions.

Rebecca Lush said:

"It is staggering that the Department for Transport seem to have no idea of the impacts of their decisions on climate change, when the Prime Minister has described this as 'the world's greatest environmental challenge'. This is a very straightforward request and if the Department really has required all the local authorities to supply CO2 data for all the schemes the DFT have approved, then it is simply a matter of getting the calculator out. Why hasn't it been done already? Road Block is tendering for this crucial work to the Department for Transport."

Notes to Editors:

The tender letter from Road Block to Douglas Alexander is attached.

The Parliamentary Question is at Hansard – 20 June 2006: Column 1732W http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm060620/text/60620w1085.htm#column_1732W