Shropshire campaigners joined protesters from across the UK in London to call for an end to ‘climate-wrecking new roads’.
Members of Better Shrewsbury Transport (BeST), XR Shrewsbury, and other county environmental groups joined the ‘People’s Picket’ outside the Department for Transport's headquarters on Horseferry Road in London at midday on April 21.
The event was part of “The Big One”, a four-day action organised by Extinction Rebellion, which saw people gather in Westminster and at the Houses of Parliament to call for action on the climate emergency.
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The Shropshire activists hand-delivered a letter for Mark Harper, the Secretary of State for Transport, calling on him to review Shrewsbury's North West Relief Road over claims of soaring costs and huge environmental damage.
The letter, written by Better Shrewsbury Transport, said that the campaigners "do not believe the DfT should be funding a new road that generates more carbon than it saves".
Campaigners said the construction of the road will create 48,000 tonnes of CO2e from its construction alone, and that it will take around 130 years to be net zero.
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