Better Transport

Cut and paste the template message below into your email to Rosie Winterton, then edit it as you like.

I am writing to ask you to reject Lancaster County Council’s funding bid for the £189 million (with optimism bias) Heysham to M6 Link Road. The scheme’s business case has been with the Department for a decision since July 2005.

Local people say that the scheme is not a solution to local transport problems, which stem from the need to travel between Lancaster and Morecambe, not between the M6 and Heysham. Far from easing congestion, the proposed massive dual carriageway would attract more lorries into the district on their way to Heysham port. More importantly the council admits that the scheme would lead to an additional 23,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide being emitted each year when we should be doing all we can to reduce these emissions. The scheme would also destroy 173 acres of Green Belt and increase flooding risk for the River Lune. The scheme is very controversial and unpopular locally, with the local MP Geraldine Smith opposed to it.

The council is generating a package of alternative solutions to local congestion (a Faber Maunsell report is under review); in my opinion it would be crazy to build this road and then spend millions of pounds more on addressing the real problem.

Please do not award funding for the scheme, and instead ask Lancaster County Council to look at the sustainable solutions.

I look forward to receiving your reply.

Yours sincerely

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