CILT (UK) appeared before Parliament’s Transport Select Committee today to give evidence on strategic road investment and whether major road projects are meeting country’s needs. 

Sharon Kindleysides FCILT, Chief Executive at CILT(UK) responded to a question from the committee  on whether the policies and major investments in strategic road infrastructure are meeting the needs of road users and commitments to net zero. 

Sharon Kindleysides FCILT, Chief Executive at CILT(UK) said:

“The road network’s targets are to support economic growth and productivity, and also reach net zero emissions by 2050. They are both in conflict but also complimentary. If you think of how we’re going to get to net-zero, we need to look at ways to get people off the roads. But if we’re also looking at developing the levelling up agenda, we want people to move and work in those areas. The goals have to go hand in hand. From a freight and logistics point of view, a lot of warehouses end up on green or brown field sites that there is only road access, which bakes in some of the problems. We need to look at land use policies, and other ways of getting freight off the road. We need to look at it as a whole, and decide what is most important to us.”

“We need to maintain what we’ve got in terms of roads but look at where there are gaps that relate to the logistics network. We may want to look at strategic corridors, but we need to decide who do we want to have in the least congestion, a car owner or the logistics chain. For example, around Christmas time, everybody’s front doors suddenly become a logistics depot because of the amount of parcels delivered. A lot of residential areas are having levels of traffic that they’re not designed for. The feeder roads into them also have an unsustainable amount of traffic. It feeds back into planning, and the fact that we need to look at the road network as a whole.”

To listen to the meeting in full, visit: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/16636acf-c392-43a4-887d-ca47bc2fe458