Lib Dems Lambast Tory "Toad In The Hole" Transport Strategy

10.09.52am GMT Thu 6th Nov 2003

At last night's Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee Lib Dem and Community members strongly attacked the Tories' new Borough Transport Strategy - A Clear Road Ahead.

Commented Lib Dem Transport Spokesman Cllr Martin Elengorn "The title says it all. The Tories fantasise they can take the borough back to some pre-war motorist's idyll, with Mr Toad bowling along the open road at top speed blowing his horn and oblivious of more vulnerable road users. It is a fantasy that there is sufficient road space for all modes of transport to be given equal priority. Public transport and other environmentally friendly transport modes have to be given priority and use of the private car discouraged or we will have gridlock. Short-term schemes to ease congestion only put off the evil hour if the root causes are not addressed."

"The document is littered with strange remarks. For instance on its first page it is claimed that private transport offers "personal safety and security" when the borough accident figures demonstrate conclusively that public transport is safer. On the same page the threshold for controlled parking is lifted still higher so a clear majority of those living and running businesses in the area have to vote for it. So if there is a 50% turnout and 49% vote for a CPZ and 1% against, there is no CPZ. Later on (page 7) there is talk of removing more bus lanes, taking out CPZs (page 13) and relaxing maximum parking standards (page 21)."

Added Martin Elengorn "Richmond Council is becoming a joke in Greater London because of its backward-looking transport policies and it is no wonder it is proving harder and harder to recruit new traffic engineers. Even more serious is the fear that this misplaced emphasis on traffic flow and the clear road ahead will make it more difficult to achieve the year on year reduction in numbers injured or killed in road accidents which we all want to see."