10,000 signatures reached
To: Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP, Secretary of State for Transport
STOP THE NEW LOWER THAMES CROSSING INTO ESSEX
We are calling on you to withdraw plans for a new lower Thames crossing.
In particular option C for the crossing would destroy whole villages, ancient woodland, heritage sites and wildlife habitats. Nearly all the land has protected natural status, once it is concreted over it will be gone forever.
Why is this important?
Thurrock is the most polluted area in the whole of UK but the Government have put forward proposals for a third Thames crossing between Essex and Kent which could make local people's lives a misery.
Option C for the crossing would devastate over 100 acres of Green Belt as well as destroying a Fen, villages and a wildlife Hospital. Thousands of people will be given no choice but to sell their homes to the government and relocate. There is very little pristine land left in this part of the country.
The new Thames crossing is being proposed on the grounds of reducing delays and congestion. Yet evidence from the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England shows that new routes actually increase congestion and road usage rather than reduce it. And with toll gates due to be removed on the existing crossing and bridge from 2014 the problem could be eased without the need to build another.
Kent and Essex councils have already backed route C and whilst the department for transport says that it is considering all options there are indications that the decision has already made. Not only this, but at £5 billion Option C is more than double the cost of other routes at a time when budgets are stretched.
Please sign the petition and help us stop these plans.
