The green measures introduced by Alistair Darling today will be swamped by government policy on roads and aviation.Labour supports a third runway at Heathrow, runway extensions at Stansted, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and expansion plans at twelve other airports.
£11.5 billion has been spent on new roads since 1997, but only £1.16 billion on new rail lines.
Instead of roads and aviation, Labour needs to begin to seriously fund green forms of transport.
The Coventry Green Party supports:
- a focus on walking and cycling projects within cities (aided by 20 mph zones to make walking and cycling safer)
- making public transport easier to use (buses that run on time, buses which are low-floor to aid elderly users)
- making public transport more affordable (we support the UK Youth Parliament’s campaign for all under 18s in full-time education to be allocated a national concession card)
- renationalisation and expansion of the rail network
- a moratorium on new motorways
- a moratorium on airport expansion
Aviation might employ 50 000 people at Heathrow, but we can generate hundreds of thousands of jobs if we pursue a new range of activities -- energy conservation, organic agriculture, renewable energy, and producing socially useful products from waste.
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