Today we launched our campaign of opposition to the M1 widening.
Response from the general public was pretty good, and the local radio station came down to do interviews about the campaign.


The Department of Transport has announced its intention to widen the M1 from Leicester to Leeds (junctions 21 - 42) to 4 lanes in both directions. There is also widening planned for junctions 6a-13 (M25 - Luton).

The proposed works are estimated to cost over £3 billion. Road programmes frequently exceed their estimates by a factor of three.

Air Pollution and Noise
There are many towns and villages along the M1 - many of these already have problems with air pollution and increasing traffic will make this worse. Pollution from traffic has been shown to increase respiratory problems such as asthma and chronic bronchitis. More people have heart attacks when air pollution levels are higher.

Road Traffic Accidents
Over 3,000 people are killed every year on roads in the UK, and a further 200,000 injured. Encouraging more people to drive on motorways will not improve road safety.

Climate Change
This is already happening - freak weather events are occurring far more often and the pattern of our seasons is changing. Left unchecked climate change will cause droughts and famines. Floods will leave thousands homeless and without land to grow crops. Only a massive reduction in our CO2 emissions can stop this nightmare scenario occurring. CO2 emissions from road transport are actually increasing and currently constitute 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions.

Oil is running out.
The need for oil has already fuelled many conflicts. No-one knows exactly when the oil will run out altogether, but the sooner we end our dependence on oil, the better.

 http://www.nowideningm1.org.uk/index.html

 notts@nowideningm1.org.uk