Will Mayor Claire Ward waste our money on roads?

Campaigners are urging the East Midlands Mayor to reallocate roads funding to sustainable travel.

The government has allocated £2bn for transport in the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) area of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.But Mayor Claire Ward has plans to spend £1.2bn of this on just six road schemes.

The EMCCA Climate Coalition, representing a number of community and campaign groups, has suggested a number of schemes which could be implemented around the region for less than half as much, including:

• hourly buses to every village
• planning around active travel
• school streets & people-friendly streets
• public control of buses
• reallocate road space from cars to walking/cycling and buses

Please support their petition to the Mayor (and to your MP) asking her to look at all the options and support sustainable travel:

Anne Robinson from Hope Valley Climate Action said: "We recognise that money is tight. We think that the Mayor needs to spend wisely on solutions that give great value and include more people. This means creating safe and attractive villages, streets and quiet lanes to encourage walking and cycling as part of daily life by people of all abilities. It means investing in frequent, reliable buses to every village, every hour. This would be much less expensive than building new roads, which increase car dependency. Boosting active travel and good public transport, for local people and visitors, improves health and well-being and reduces congestion and pollution."

A detailed report has been sent to the Mayor: