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Transport group slams 'wilfully misleading' Government

23/07/2009

Councils across the country are being misled by the Government about road-building funding, the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) has claimed.

The group, which lobbies for improved public transport, has hit out after seven regions from around England received Government support for their transport priorities for the next five years.

The regional proposals detail a range of transport improvements for roads and public transport. However, the CBT is critical of the amount of money that could go towards road building - pointing to a £4 billion figure from a total transport bill of £5.5 billion for the five-year period.

For each of the plans submitted, the Department for Transport said it was "content with the region's priorities", though this does not mean that schemes have been given the go-ahead. The Government says it will consider the impact of each of them on greenhouse gas emissions before granting full approval.

Transport minister Sadiq Khan said that he was confident each region's proposals would help develop "efficient, reliable and sustainable transport fit for the 21st Century".

However, CBT roads and climate campaigner Richard George accused the Government of "wilfully misleading" councils by promising money it knows is not available, to pay for schemes that he believes are at odds with the newly-announced low-carbon transport strategy.

"Even if we could afford them, I can't see why we'd want to," he said.

"Many of these schemes are a terrible waste of money and cannot be delivered on time or on budget.

"Promising to spend £4 billion on road building just after announcing a carbon-reduction strategy shows that this Government is still not taking its climate change commitments seriously."