CHADWELL Community Forum is hosting a public meeting on 7th September 2011 at 7.30pm to discuss the proposals to build another Thames crossing in Thurrock and to increase the tolls on the existing crossing by 66% in the next twelve months.
The meeting is in Emmanuel Church hall, Sleepers Farm Road, and the Minister for Roads, Mike Penning MP plus both Thurrock’s serving MPs’ have been invited.
Chair Peter Saunders said: “All Thurrock residents are urged to attend, to express their view on yet another dual-carriageway cutting a swathe across the centre of the authority.
“Thurrock has one of the highest incidences of asthma in the region, and the fact that it also bears a lot of the region’s traffic already cannot be a coincidence. Yet the Dept for Transport do not appear to have factored this in to their calculations.”
Let’s hope this is not another “Yes, Minister” scenario, with Mike Penning giving us assurances and the Highways Agency ignoring him and going their own sweet way (cf promises to lift the barriers at times of severe congestion).
The correlation with asthma is not the only factor which the Dept for Transport appear to have ignored, and their projections for future use also seem to be questionable.