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Senedd member denies Tories are ‘anti-environment’

16 Aug 2021 2 minute read
Natasha Asghar the elected member for the Conservative Party

A Senedd member has denied that the Tories are “anti-environment”.

Natasha Asghar MS, the Conservative shadow Minister for Transport and Technology has defended the party’s decision to oppose the Welsh Government’s freeze on all new road-building projects in Wales while a review is carried out.

She branded the move as “knee jerk” and claimed that congestion on Welsh roads is “having major health and environmental impacts on the people of Wales”.

When announcing the freeze Deputy Minister for Climate Change Lee Waters said he had to take action to “significantly cut carbon emissions”.

On the conservative-leaning website Gwydir, Asghar wrote: “Their failure to address rising congestion, as well as the poor standards of public transport, is having major health and environmental impacts on the people of Wales.

“Each time Welsh Conservatives make this point, we are branded as being ‘anti-environment’ which we most certainly are not.

“Wales has some of the worst air quality in the UK and congestion on Welsh roads is a major factor in this.

“Stop-start traffic not only emits more greenhouse gasses than free flowing traffic, it also causes more particulate pollution to be emitted.

“I’m a believer in progress and it is a fact that a constant flow of traffic will reduce the amount of particulate matter released by break and tyre wear, as well as reducing the carbon dioxide that the acceleration of cars produces.

“The Welsh Government declared a climate change emergency in 2019.

“Their failure to address climate change has resorted to knee jerk reactions such as the freezing of road building projects rather than improving public transport and easing congestion on Welsh Roads.”

‘Pause’ 

When announcing the freeze, Lee Waters MS, the Deputy Minister for Climate Change, said: “Today, in my role as Deputy Climate Change Minister I’m announcing a pause in all roads schemes not under construction while we review how much headroom we have keep building new roads and meet our Net Zero emissions targets by 2050.

“I’m asking a panel of experts to look at when new roads are justified – for safety or access reasons for example and how we can redirect funding to roads maintenance and public transport.

“A Climate emergency demands that we do things differently.”


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Mab Meirion
Mab Meirion
3 years ago

Prove it !

Cynan
Cynan
3 years ago

They are anti-everything good

Stephen Owen
Stephen Owen
3 years ago

Anti-Welsh, anti-European, anti-everything.

Steve Duggan
Steve Duggan
3 years ago

The trouble with the Tories is that while Labour is in power they will oppose whatever policy is put forward. However, once they achieve power they will pinch that policy and claim it as their own. You see it has nothing to do with whether the policy works or not but only if it has the potential to win votes, if there is a possibility then it will be used. Power, control and keeping both, while making as much money as possible in the meantime, is what is what the party is all about. Society and social aspects are to… Read more »

Last edited 3 years ago by Steve Duggan
hdavies15
hdavies15
3 years ago

The Tories in opposition are just plain irritating. They will use the environment ticket when it suits them, like allowing rich landowners to erect wind turbines, solar farms etc , or to justify not investing in roads away from the M4 and A55 corridors. However they are wedded to the idea of a new M4 around Newport because “Greater Cardiff” is one of their strategic projects for a more intensely urbanised UK. Over the next few weeks we will no doubt hear calls for even more spending on Defence, as the Taliban are now in Kabul and the threat level… Read more »

Steve Duggan
Steve Duggan
3 years ago
Reply to  hdavies15

As I said money and control. Money will give them control and control will give them more money. Central government in the UK will never change as it’s been that way oriented for centuries. The rest of the country suffers while the cronies get richer.

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