Press Releases for 2005
TRANSPORT WITHOUT TEARS: Kent Greens support national campaign to improve transport
21 April 2005Kent Green Party County Candidates are strongly supporting the Green Party's call for five major changes of Government transport policy. Kent Greens support the "5 Transport Pledges" which will deliver £330 billions's worth of progressive transport measures(2), reduce road traffic by 10%(3), reconnect urban and rural England, and make Britain's towns and cities cleaner and safer places. Dr Hazel Dawe, Kent Green Party Campaigns Officer, comments:
"Kent does not need more major roads. The obsession of successive Governments with roadbuilding and neglect of the public transport network has cut off people who can't drive from their essential services. This has left Britain with a £343bn a-year road habit (4) that accounts for more than one fifth of the UKs Greenhouse gas emissions (5).
"A working, affordable public transport network is essential for tackling climate change and to creating a more equitable society. The Green Party is demanding 5 practical measures to rebuild Britain's transport network. We particularly need to reconnect rural Kent to its towns through adequate spending on public transport. The five pledges are: invest £330 billion in rail, bus, cycle and pedestrian transport improvements; 2 - Make rail transport publicly funded and affordable by bringing rail back into public ownership and reducing rail fares; 3 - Re-regulate Britain's buses; reduce road traffic by 10% over 5 years: scrap the tax disc, increase fuel duty; 5 - End aviation's £39bn (6) a year tax break.
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FURTHER INFORMATION: Dr Hazel Dawe, Campaigns Officer, Kent Green Party, on 01233 645167 or 07747 014487. Contact address as above or email: hfdawe at gn.apc.org
NOTES to editors:
1. Launched on 21st April 2005 in Brighton: Greens to launch "5 Transport pledges" - "We will re-connect Britain and make our cities cleaner, Greener and safer"
2. £330bn liberated through scrapping the Government's roadbuilding scheme and through taxing progressively.
3. Manifesto commitment, achieved by implementing the progressive transport measures referred to above.
4.The UK spends £343 billion a year on the direct and indirect costs of road transport, inluding road building and maintenance and hidden costs such as pollution and health costs. FROM: - Fair Payment From Road Users? A critical look at the calculations for air pollution, David Maddison, Centre for Social and Economic Research into the Global Environment (CSERGE), University College London and University of East Anglia, for ETA Trust on behalf of: Council for the Protection for Rural England, Friends of the Earth, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Transport 2000, December 1998: As quoted in "Fair on fuel, fair in the future" (2000) www.greenparty.org.uk 5. See "Fair on Fuel, Fair on Future", above 6. Aviation enjoys hidden tax breaks (including VAT) and other subsidies amounting to at least £39bn a year.
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