Road Block is a project of Transport 2000

PRESS RELEASE – 8th January 2007

M1 WIDENING WILL INCREASE CO2 AND TRAFFIC GROWTH

Reacting today to the news that the Roads Minister Stephen Ladyman had awarded the £340 million contract to widen the M1 between junctions 25 to 28 Road Block's Coordinator Rebecca Lush said:

"Years of experience show that adding another lane to the M1 will mean we will simply end up with a wider traffic jam, as it will simply fill straight back up with more traffic, creating more carbon dioxide. It is disappointing that the government is committing such a large sum of money to roadbuilding, when money is crying out to be invested into our public transport. At a time when we know that we must act quickly to tackle climate change this kind of decision from the government will only make things worse.

The widening will also simply bring more noise and pollution for local residents. What we need is better public transport provision that will benefit everyone, not more expensive roadbuilding which will make the problem worse"

Notes to Editors

[1] The widening announcement was made by Stephen Ladyman today here:
http://www.gnn.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=254746&NewsAreaID=2
The £340 million contract was awarded to MVM, a joint venture groups made up of Vinci, Sir Robert McAlpine, Morgan Est, Gifford and WSP.

[2] The £340 million widening of the 23 mile stretch works out at just under £15 million a mile for just one extra lane.

[3] The M1 widening from junction 6-13, and 21-42 is opposed by the No Widening M1 Alliance. See http://www.nowideningm1.org.uk/ . The full total of all the M1 widening contracts is over £3.7 billion.

Road Block
020 7729 6973 / 07854 693067
www.roadblock.org.uk