Ministers provoke anger with new road schemes

Green campaigners warned of the return of "Swampy-style" demonstrations yesterday after the Government decided to press ahead with 40 new road schemes.

Green campaigners warned of the return of "Swampy-style" demonstrations yesterday after the Government decided to press ahead with 40 new road schemes.

Pressure groups said they were "shocked" by some of the announcements including the decision to build the second stage of the highly controversial Salisbury bypass. Other initiatives heavily criticised yesterday by both local people and green activists were new road projects at Weymouth, Dorset; Barnstaple, north Devon; Camelford, Cornwall and Leeds.

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston, a Transport minister, who is thought to have been primarily responsible for pushing the road schemes through as part of an £8bn investment in local transport, was accused of reneging on environmental promises made before the last election.

Lynn Sloman of Transport 2000 said communities and environment groups would now "take on the Government over every inch of tarmac". Many of the projects although backed by local authorities, were bitterly opposed by the people they most affected, she said.

"The Government is flying in the face of all the feedback from local consultations. Lord Macdonald should not think that because the local authorities have asked for the schemes, they will be electorally popular. Local people will feel they have been sold out. Everything ministers originally stood for seems to have been forgotten."

Tony Bosworth of Friends of the Earth said: "The shadow of the bulldozer is looming over some of the UK's finest wildlife sites and most attractive countryside.

"The extra money announced by the Government for public transport and small- scale schemes such as bus lanes and traffic calming is very welcome. But the go-ahead for some very damaging road schemes signals a return to the bad old days. The Tories found in the mid-90s that building roads through Middle England was a surefire way of losing votes."

The new road schemes were part of £8.4bn of government investment over the next five years on transport projects in England identified at local level. Alongside the £1bn on improving existing roads and building 14 bypasses, another £3bn has been earmarked for maintaining highways. Under the plan £4.4bn will also be spent on public transport, including two new light rail schemes in Birmingham. There will also be 26 other big public transport schemes such as "guided bus" projects in which the vehicles run on dedicated roadways and bus priority measures.

Some £2.8bn has been set aside for smaller initiatives including 20mph zones, traffic calming measures, more than 2,500 miles of new cycle routes and 120 new and improved "park-and-ride" facilities for people travelling into towns.

The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, said the money would make a real difference to everyone, "however they travel and wherever they live".

He said the Government had maintained "a proper balance" between spending on roads and spending on public transport and had reversed years of under-investment.

While some of the projects had been only provisionally accepted, 20 important initiatives costing at least £5m each would definitely go ahead. Others - including the bypasses at Rearsby, Chilton and Rugeley - would be built provided certain criteria were met.

Professor David Begg, chairman of the Commission for Integrated Transport, welcomed the fact that money for small- scale schemes had more than doubled.

"This paves the way for many more cycle lanes, pedestrian improvements, bus priority and interchange measures," he said.

The shadow Transport minister Bernard Jenkin said the package was "a real let down, not the Christmas bonanza Mr Prescott pretends. It is not new money. It was announced in the summer [10-year] transport plan."

Don Foster, Liberal Democrat Transport spokesman, said the plans would not lead to reduction in road traffic. "John Prescott has shot himself in the foot. We are determined to hold him to his promise to reduce the number of journeys by car."

He added that traffic calming and bus priority measures "only chip away at the problem" and that South Yorkshire was the only local authority to come up with a plan to stabilise road traffic growth. "Public transport remains underfunded. We need serious investment if we are to develop a public transport system which is safe, reliable and affordable."