“It’s one minute to midnight in the battle against climate change,” said the Prime Minister, on the eve of the United Nations Climate Change Conference last year, and he called for world leaders to ‘grow up’ and tackle the threat of climate change.

North Somerset Council too has declared a ‘climate change and nature emergency’ and yet there is a proposal to build a new road to enable the building of 2,800 new homes at Banwell.

Transport already contributes 42 per cent of North Somerset’s carbon emissions and, with this new road, we will go backwards in the struggle to achieve net zero.

We are yet to be told the official carbon cost of the Banwell bypass but the projected carbon cost of building the new road is estimated as 64,000 tonnes of embodied carbon emissions.

To this, there will be additional CO2 emissions from increased traffic and a further 5,600 tonnes each year in transport emissions due to commuting from the 2,800 new homes.

Is this ‘walking the talk’?

There are substantial financial costs too with the Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund paying £66m towards the spiralling costs of the Banwell Bypass.

READ MORE: Plan for 2,800 homes would see 'Banwell Bypass' built

North Somerset Council has also confirmed they will cover overspend so it will be payable by all communities and council taxpayers in the area as far afield as Portishead.

Sir David Attenborough recently appealed that “What we do now, and in the next few years, will profoundly affect life on earth for the next few thousand years”.

Carbon costs should therefore trump others in our choices for the future.

North Somerset Council’s Rainbow Coalition must set a good example, think again, implement a sustainable transport strategy, and make the right choices for the generations to come.

DAVID JOHNSON
Churchill