County council must change its stance on greenhouse gases

From: Paul Humphreys Chichester Close, Eastbourne
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How depressing it was to watch East Sussex County’s Full Council meeting on Friday July 23.

Most noticeable was how dismissive and condescending they were to any opposition.

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Cllr David Tutt predictably failed to get a change in their 2050 carbon neutral target to 2030. For background this is only for their activities, which are now 15,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum.

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air pollution car exhaust vehicle gasses traffic jam gv NNL-210504-092338001

However ESCC does have responsibility for transport, which is massive. Current CO2 emissions, for the East Sussex road network, are 850,000 tonnes CO2 per annum. Sadly the council, over the last 30 years, has overseen big reductions in bus and cycle trips and an ever increasing share for cars.

So you might ask what could they do? Well for starters, there is now a consultation for expanding the roundabouts on the A22 and A2290, with the A22 ones alone costing £35m. If they were taking congestion and carbon seriously, they could have included bus priorities.

However the modelling, behind the consultation, assumes no increase in bus use but an every increasing number of car trips. It estimates an additional 25 per cent of traffic across Eastbourne and South Wealden by 2039. Much of the road network simply will not cope!

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There will always be a need for cars but there has to an ambition to give people alternatives, such as train, bus and cycling. ‘Business as usual’ is no longer an option and there has to be a change in direction within the council.