Grannies set up “car wash” in Combe Haven floodwaters to highlight roads-climate link

January 15, 2014 by combehavendefenders

Members of Grannies Are in Action (GAIA) stage a car wash in the flood waters of Combe Haven, 12 January 2014.

15 January 2014
Combe Haven Defenders [1]

GRANNIES SET UP “CAR WASH” IN FLOOD WATERS TO HIGHLIGHT ROADS-CLIMATE LINK

Grandmothers wearing hard hats and high viz jackets have staged a “car wash” action in the floodwaters of Combe Haven – the valley currently being devastated by the controversial £113m Bexhill-Hastings Link Road (BHLR) – to highlight the link between new roads, global warming and extreme weather events.

In the last few days David Cameron has said “that he ‘suspected’ that the recent spate of wet weather, which has caused widespread disruption and the loss of several lives, was linked to climate change” [2]. Flooding is judged to be the greatest threat to the UK posed by climate change – with up to 3.6 million people at risk by the middle of the century – according to the environment department [3]. road transport currently accounts for more than 20% of the UK’s domestic greenhouse gas emissions [4].

The campaign against the BHLR – the ‘first and the worst’ of over 200 new road-building projects that the Chancellor, Big Business and local councils are currently pushing throughout England and Wales [5] – has already led to 30 arrests and attracted national media attention [6].

Rosamond Palmer of Grandmothers Are In Action (GAIA) said: “In terms of carbon emissions, the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road is one of the worst transport schemes currently being worked on [7]. When are the Department for Transport and East Sussex County Council going to heed the scientific evidence on global warming?  £113m of taxpayers money is being spent on a scheme that will increase the severe weather we are experiencing. Wouldn’t it be better to spend our money on something useful and less harmful?”

Contact: 07565 967 250. HIGH RES PHOTO: http://tinyurl.com/combehavencarwash (Members of Grannies Are in Action (GAIA) stage a car wash in the flood waters of Combe Haven, 12 January 2014).

NOTES
[1] http://www.combehavedefenders.org.uk
[2] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/10/david-cameron-floods-global-warming-climate-scientists
[3] DfT factsheet: https://combehavendefenders.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/climatechangefactsheets-1.pdf
[4] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/jan/26/floods-worst-climate-change-uk
[5] https://combehavendefenders.wordpress.com/recent-media-coverage/
[6] See http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/campaigns/roads-to-nowhere/map for an online map of the proposals. For background see the Campaign for Better Transport’s October 2012 briefing ‘Going backwards: the new roads programme’: http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/media/26-Oct-roads-report. The latter lists 191 projects (more have come to light since then), conservatively costed at £30bn, including 76 bypasses, 56 widened roads, 48 link roads and 9 bridges and tunnels. It also notes that ‘Many of the roads would affect areas protected for conservation, landscape and heritage reasons
incl[uding] three National Parks, the National Wetland of the Norfolk Broads and at least seven Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).
[7] http://hastingsalliance.com/2012/06/19/secretary-of-state-lobbied-as-rio20-approaches/