Council presses for road change

Government Urged to Change Roads Policy

The Council for the Protection of Rural England said Labour should start its promised review of the roads programme without delay.

Plans to transfer the planning and management of trunk roads from central to local government offered a chance to set transport planning in a new direction, the CPRE added.

"Large numbers of road schemes continue to threaten unspoilt countryside despite growing public concern at their environmental impact," said CPRE head of transport, Lilli Matson.

She said proposed changes to trunk road planning put forward by the Transport and Environment Departments last February was "a useful framework for the new Government's crucial rethink of the roads programme".

"This should be matched, however, with a readiness to challenge deep-rooted assumptions at all levels of government about the benefits of road building and the inevitability of needing to rely so much on the car in future," she added.

Meanwhile. the transport minister, Glenda Jackson, is launching a campaign designed to raise public awareness about polution and traffic congestion. The annual campaign, called "Don't Choke Britain", is run by the Local Government Association.

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