PRESS RELEASE : Road Link Across Wensum Valley Would Cause Irreversible Harm [January 2019]

The press release issued by the Norwich Green Party on 15 January 2019.

Green councillors want Norfolk County Council to abandon its outdated plans for a Norwich Western Link and they recommend that Norwich City Council’s cabinet does not support a new road at its meeting on Wednesday 16th January.

Councillor Denise Carlo, Leader of the Green Group on Norwich City Council, said:

“The irreversible harm to the Wensum and Tud valleys, higher greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate breakdown and extra new traffic are a high price for people and the environment to pay. “

Green councillors are concerned that the county council has inflated the traffic case for a Western Link by including in the traffic model a new industrial park for up to 8,000 jobs and a settlement of 4,000 homes in open countryside which would generate substantial car and lorry traffic.

Denise Carlo added:

“I doubt whether the public is aware that the Council is proposing major traffic-generating development in open countryside to support a traffic case for a Western Link. We are also concerned that road construction costs are under-estimated. For example, Greens calculate the real cost of Option D, close to Ringland and priced at £161 million, could be up to £300 milliondue to its complex engineering.

“The extra £2 million that the County wants to spend on further road design work should be invested on working up a ‘fit for the future’ package of public transport, walking, cycling and travel planning measures which would benefit everyone. Thirty-seven per centof car journeys in the study area are under six miles and some drivers could switch if green travel modes were improved.”