Government road building plans have no climate change assessment - Rowen

10.29.05pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 2nd Aug 2006

A report published today for Friends of the Earth shows that the Department for Transport (DfT) does not know the full impact of its decisions on climate change, something first revealed by the Liberal Democrats last October.

The findings are supported by Liberal Democrat research based on Parliamentary Answers from the Department for Transport which reveals the true extent of the growth in car traffic which will result from the Government's planned road building schemes nationally.

The research reveals:

• There will be an increase of total traffic levels in 23% of new roads and road widening schemes currently planned by the Highways Agency

• That there is still no assessment of future predicted traffic levels for 36% of such planned schemes

• Data on carbon dioxide emissions exists for less than half of all road schemes

Commenting, Paul Rowen MP, Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesperson, said "These figures are indicative of a government that has failed to realise that they can't build their way out of the UK's transport problems. Labour's transport policy operates in a fantasy land where assessing the impact of road schemes has clearly ground to a halt.

"It is a shame that the Government will not drop its obsession with pushing forward massive road building schemes. Road building will simply lead to more traffic. It's a self-perpetuating fallacy.

"Labour is giving the green light to road projects without regard to accidents, emissions or future traffic levels. This is neither an integrated nor a joined-up transport policy."