A14 - put freight back on rail

ON the opening day of the Copenhagen summit on climate change I feel I cannot let Natalie Walker's ill informed comments (Letters, December 2) go unanswered.

Transporting goods for long distances by road in half-empty lorries is both inefficient and hugely damaging to the environment in terms of CO2 emissions. The Highways Agency itself admits that this proposal will lead to further increases in traffic on the road at a time when the Government has signed up to a reduction in carbon emissions of 80 per cent by 2050.

We owe it to our children and our children's children to find a better alternative to getting goods around the country. It is time we stopped using 20th century solutions to solve 21st century problems and looked at other options such as putting long-distance freight back on the railways.

Recently, villagers from the 'sleepy parishes' of Offord Cluny and Offord D'Arcy turned out in force to plant 252 trees on our Millennium Green as part of the Tree O'clock challenge. Even if these trees reached full maturity tomorrow, they could not hope to keep up with the increased carbon emissions of 36,000 tonnes in the opening year caused by this proposed new road.

Ms Walker would do well to take a leaf out of the Offords book and turn her attention to planting trees rather than building roads: her neighbours in St Ives could then enjoy a greener future.

The Offords A14 Action Group was formed almost five years ago and has been resisting these proposals consistently since that date. It is time Ms Walker herself 'grew up' and started to acquaint herself with some of the issues. She would then learn that building your way out of a problem is not the best solution, neither does the economic viability of this area depend on it.

NITA TINN

Offords A14 Action Group