This comes after the Welsh government announced on Wednesday that it is freezing new road-building projects as part of its plans to tackle the climate emergency – and has appointed an external panel to review all proposed schemes.

Of the £875 million allocated as part of the West Yorkshire-plus Transport Fund, £660 million is allocated to road building

programmes compared to just under £20 million to building railway stations – just a single new station across the county in Elland.

Leading these calls is Councillor Matt Edwards, who was elected to Bradford Council in May representing the Tong Ward in Bradford.

Tong Ward has two of the largest schemes being funded by WYCA, South East Bradford Access Road (often called the Tong Valley Road) and widening of A650 at Tong Street.

Councillor Edwards said, “New roads create new traffic. That’s a fact that Tracy Brabin and our Councils in West Yorkshire can’t escape.

“More traffic not only means more environment wrecking emissions being pumped into the air – it has a disastrous effect on the health of people living near these roads.

“The streets close to Tong Street are statistically ranked as some of the most unhealthy in our district largely due to air pollution and this vast amount of money needs to be invested in schemes which will deliver cleaner air and benefit our environment.

Councillor Andrew Cooper, a councillor from Kirklees (Newsome Ward) who was also the Green Party candidate for West Yorkshire Mayor added,

“The Labour-led Welsh government is showing real leadership with their announcement earlier this week and they are showing they understand the level of commitment needed if we want to tackle the climate emergency.

“I hope Tracy Brabin will take heed of the science and reverse West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s fixation with spending hundreds of millions on environment-wrecking schemes.”

The post Greens call for road building pause following similar move in Wales appeared first on Yorkshire & The Humber Green Party.

This was one of Yorkshire’s most controversial planning applications in decades due to the negative environmental damage airport expansion would cause.

Planning officers had recommended approving the application despite a significant amount of opposition from across West Yorkshire.

Nine Leeds councillors voted to approve the plans and five including Green councillor, David Blackburn (Farnley & Wortley Ward), voted against.

Councillor Andrew Cooper, Green Party Candidate for Mayor of West Yorkshire Mayor and a Kirklees Councillor, said

“This is incredibly disappointing news and takes us backwards in our response to the climate crisis.

“This ruling today just makes a mockery of how our councils here in West Yorkshire are responding to their climate commitments. There is simply no room for airport expansion in a climate emergency. It just does not make sense when the UK as a whole has to reduce its carbon emissions as quickly as possible.

“This has been a real ‘David and Goliath’ story as, on the one side is a large global pension fund who own the airport, and on the other is a crowd-funded campaign and lots of hard work by ordinary but committed people, including many Green Party members.

“Leeds Council have sent a clear message that commercial interests are more important than the views of local people, the protection of our environment and the wellbeing of future generations.”

Bradford Council in particular came under fire after it told Leeds City Council that it has ‘no objection’ to the airport’s planning application. Campaigners have accused the Labour-run authority of ignoring its own Climate Emergency declaration.

The post Greens react to Leeds Bradford Airport approval appeared first on Yorkshire & The Humber Green Party.