Protesters gathered outside Lancashire County Council’s County Hall on Thursday as councillors and representatives from wildlife trusts and other agencies met for the first Lancashire Climate Summit.

The group, SLICE - Sustainable Lancaster in Carbon Emergency - were protesting against plans to build a new town of 9,000 plus houses with new motorway links on fields south of Lancaster.

Co-chair of SLICE, Millie Prosser said: “The proposed new motorway links alone will eat up a quarter of Lancaster District’s carbon budget – the amount of carbon all of us can emit - for three generations.

“We need to live within our carbon budget, not blow it on badly thought through developments.”

Lancashire Telegraph:

The 20 plus protesters brought along a giant ‘carbon cake’, with a large slice cut out to illustrate the carbon impact of roads, and handed a briefing paper to delegates at the climate summit.

Ms Prosser  continued: “While we applaud the county council for calling the Climate Summit, we call on them to rethink their plans.

"All but one of Lancashire’s councils, including the county council, have pledged to reach net zero emissions by 2030.

"Building homes that rely on major new road construction, don’t align with those pledges. It just doesn’t add up.

“Yes, we need new homes, but well designed, well insulated homes in urban areas where people have amenities close by, not ones that make people dependent on private cars.

“The council says that the new Bailrigg Garden Village will have high environmental standards and encourage people to work and play near home.

"But past experience shows that these so-called ‘Garden Villages’ can turn into tarmac towns for commuters.

"If this really was going to be a 15-minute neighbourhood - with work and amenities to hand - why would it need a link road to the motorway.”

SLICE is a coalition of organisations and individuals committed to opposing the plans to build 9,185 homes, a new motorway junction and three new roads on the countryside south of Lancaster.

The South Lancaster Growth Catalyst (or Bailrigg Garden Village), led by Lancashire County Council, will result in the proposed new roads and motorway junction using up a quarter of the district’s carbon budget for three generations; will see a £10,000 additional roof tax levied on developers, meaning lower sustainability standards for the new homes and many fewer affordable homes; and will see the roof tax go first to top up the £98m shortfall in government funding for the road, and will only go on sustainable transport once the road has been paid for.

SLICE are also campaigning for major new infrastructure to be as sustainable as possible and in line with climate commitments.