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Transport |
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| Objective
To reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from transport (particularly road transport), both through our transport planning function and our own activities. |
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| Context
Transport is central to our lives. Demand has increased for decades and the transport sector, including air travel, now produces 25% of all the UK’s green house gas emissions. Road transport contributes about 85% of this and cars account for around 50% of the total transport emissions. Transport is not only a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, it is also where emissions are growing the fastest. Nationally and locally the transport sector is the most difficult area to address in terms of climate change. This is because mobility is so central to our present lifestyles and energy-efficient means of transport are still underdeveloped.
Although aircraft emissions are excluded from national targets under the Kyoto Treaty, the recent confirmation of the status of Coventry Airport by the ODPM, with permission to handle 1 million passengers per annum has significant surface access and air quality implications for Warwickshire.
The County Council is the largest employer in Warwickshire. We have approximately 16,000 employees (including teachers), most of whom commute to work. Combined with the mileage carried out on essential Council business, providing quality services to the community, this produces approximately 24,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.
Local Transport Plan
The Warwickshire Local Transport Plan commits the County Council to ‘provide alternatives to using cars, giving the highest priority to improving public transport, the integration of transport, and improving facilities for walking and cycling’. By doing so it will reduce the need to travel and encourage more efficient travel and the use of low-carbon modes of transport.
The County Council has had a number of successes including the opening of Warwick Parkway station and, most recently, Coleshill Parkway, North Warwickshire, in August 2007. The Council has also been working in partnership with Sustrans to create 87 kms of National Cycle Network, in addition to the 425 km on and off road in the county. |
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