Dualling the A21 will damage the High Weald: we need to level up our transport planning

RE: Article:‘MPs step up campaign for full dualling of A21’ (Observer, February 14), this group photographed has enormous collective power to effect behavioural changes essential to combat current issues around climate change and species depletion and extinction.

Yet, at the very top of their agenda is this huge project to massively increase road space through a very special protected area – the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – an oasis of wooded ridges, valley streams and special habitats.

We can guess the scheme costs to be in the hundreds of millions generating huge volumes of extra traffic, perpetuating our continuing damaging culture of ‘car dependency’, worsening congestion and leading to more sprawling ‘car based’ developments.

Past government studies have shown the origin of over 60% of the vehicles entering Hastings in the morning peak hour to be south of Tunbridge Wells, a swathe of west Kent and East Sussex that in recent years has experienced severe cuts to its bus services, and sluggish, underfunded development of sustainable alternatives.

That’s where the focus should be – and the ‘tarmac tendency’ group photographed should be champions of restoring sustainable rural transport links and developing urban sustainable transport instead. Let’s have some ‘levelling up’!

This is no time for ‘business as usual’ in transport planning. We must integrate transport and land use planning (especially for housing) and reduce numbers of vehicles whatever their power source, using the freed up space for more productive uses such as houses, ecological planting, economic activity and of course, walking, cycling and public transport.