An Open Letter to Mark Harper MP, secretary of state for transport

From: Neil Lock

Sent: 17 February 2023 11:45
To: 'mark.harper.mp@parliament.uk' <mark.harper.mp@parliament.uk>
Subject: Restrictions on driving

Dear Mr Harper,

I write to you in your capacity as secretary of state for transport.

We all know that this government has persistently favoured policies hostile to the interests of car drivers. These include the ULEZ in London, 15-minute cities in Oxford and elsewhere, “Low Traffic Neighbourhoods” and “Clean Air Zones,” and schemes being planned by “C40” and “UK 100.” While formally being implemented at local authority level, it has come to my attention that many of these schemes are being funded in part at least by central government, and that therefore central government is providing much of the impetus for the directions in which these policies are moving.

It is stunning that the wishes of the people, whom government exists to serve, have been totally ignored in these matters. A significant majority of those who responded to the consultation on the original ULEZ were against the scheme, yet it still went ahead. I heard from local people in Oxford that 90% of those who responded to the 15-minute city plan were against it, yet that too is going ahead. No democracy worth the name would ever treat its people in such ways. No MP worth the name would ever impose policies hostile to the interests of the people who elected him; and yet you, as MP for the Forest of Dean, a rural area, are going “full steam ahead” with schemes that, if implemented in your own local area, would lead to life grinding to a halt for many people.

It would appear that UK transport policies are being driven, not by the people as should be the case in a democracy, but by political agendas – such as “nett zero” and “clean air” – that originate with the United Nations and their “sustainable development goals,” and are being imposed on the people of the UK against their wills. The views of those who respond to consultations are being ignored, and schemes are going ahead without government making even an attempt at rigorous cost-benefit analysis. A recent report by consultancy CEBR, for example, has shown that, even using the UK government’s own methodology, the costs to the people of the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars outweigh any environmental benefits by a factor of at least 5 to 1 (and probably far more). Such pointless and damaging policies are not something that those, who are supposed to represent the people, ought ever to allow to be imposed on those people.

As secretary of state for transport, you have the power to correct this appalling situation that allows costly and destructive policies, favoured by globalist elites and crazy green activists, to be imposed against their wills on people who are just trying to go about their daily lives. Please use that power to intervene to stop all these bad and undemocratic schemes from going ahead, and to ensure that no arm of government, either at national or local level, ever again tries to stop the people of the UK from enjoying the affordable, convenient, private transport which they deserve.

Yours sincerely,

Neil Lock,

Godalming, Surrey