Commenting on Transport Secretary Alistair Darling’s announcement on 10th December, of motorway and trunk road widening, Friends of the Earth’s Transport Campaigner Tony Bosworth said:

“The Government has ditched its promise to cut UK traffic levels and run up the white flag to the roads lobby. Attempting to tarmac our way out of our congestion problems has failed in the past and will fail again in the future. When the most congested parts of the M25 were widened a few years ago, many sections filled up again within a few years. These roads will also damage some of the UK’s finest countryside. The A303 will plough through the west Wiltshire Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and still poses a major threat to the Blackdown Hills. We welcome the support that local authorities have been given to improve public transport, but it’s insignificant in comparison to the scale of road-building.”

When Labour first came to power they promised to cut traffic growth. On 6 June 1997 John Prescott was reported in the Guardian as saying:

"I will have failed ...if in five years there are not many more people using public transport and far fewer journeys by car. It is a tall order but I want you to hold me to it." For more info on this statement see: www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/transport/news/prescott/

Since Labour came to power the volume of car traffic has risen by 7%.