Saturday 27 March 2010

Mersey Gateway- we must keep up the pressure


Those of us who have spent time sat in traffic either side of the current Runcorn Bridge (SJB) over the last two weekends do not need to be convinced about the need for the Mersey Gateway to get the go-ahead. It would appear that the decision to proceed will now be made after the General Election. I will continue to work with people from all political parties, and all organisations involved, to ensure they understand how much we need a green light for this vital project.

1 comment:

Derek said...

Ben, am unsure how many times you use the Runcorn bridge during the week.

You'll find that its only busy for 1/16th of the 7 day 24 hour cycle.

Unfortunately no other viable alternatives (and there are several)to a second crossing were considered with serious research coinsidering the options available took.

Now we're faced with an incredibly costly PFI (always an expensive option) were it seems that future tolls charged cannot be controlled effectively.

But its not only financial costs that are of concern but also its the negative consaequences to be faced by residents in increased particilate emissions (in an area of high pollution) which have recently been shown to be much more dangerous than previously thought.

The other issue is carbon emissions its proven that the more roads you build the more the traffic increases and this is something we need to be doing something about in terms of climate change. A second crossing will not help.