The clock is counting down! Have your say on the Lower Thames Crossing

Remember, remember, the 20th of December…
Yes, Thursday, December 20, is the last day you can submit your comments on Highways England’s plans for the new Lower Thames Crossing.
We know that the pollution, congestion and delays at the existing Dartford-Thurrock crossings are intolerable, and agree that action needs to be taken to protect the lives and livelihoods of people living and working nearby, as well as those who use the crossing.
However, the proposals for the new crossing will not fix these problems. The planned new crossing is now simply a mechanism to ‘unlock growth potential’, which means encouraging ever-more road journeys – not managing congestion.
It takes very little scrutiny of the proposal documents to realise that if the proposed crossing east of Tilbury were to be built, it would make barely any improvement on conditions at western Thurrock or Dartford.
Instead of an expensive and damaging new infrastructure project, in an area of the country that is already massively constrained and over-stressed, and which will lock in another generation to damaging car-dependent domestic and commercial development, CPRE Essex wants a better solution.
We are calling for a sustainable national transport strategy that does not encourage the ceaseless growth of road-based traffic but focuses on genuinely sustainable policies for the movement of people and goods.
We will be submitting our consultation response early next week and post it on this website for anyone interested to check out.

Meanwhile, you might like to look at some of our earlier comments from our friends across the estuary at CPRE Kent: here, here and here

And here are thoughts of Alex Hills, chairman of Dartford and Gravesham CPRE:

Our friends at the Lower Thames Crossing Association have put together a useful ‘Don’t Panic’ guide to responding; you can find it here

• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, if you would like to have your say, click here