Group vents M40 anger to MPs (From Bucks Free Press)

Group vents M40 anger to MPs

11:59am Saturday 22nd July 2006

• Print
• Email
• Share

IT will take 400 years for the Highways Agency to reduce noise pollution from the M40 unless the Government spends more money to tackle the problem, according to a campaign group.

Members of the M40 Chiltern Environmental Group (M40 CEG) met with MPs Paul Goodman, Dominic Grieve, David Lidington and Boris Johnson at Westminster last Thursday to highlight how the motorway intrudes on the lives of 25,000 people who live within 500 metres of the road.

Founder member of the group, Ken Edwards, lives in Lane End where he says noise from the road is unbelievable. He has calculated that all the money which is poured into resurfacing the road detracts from environmental investment.

Mr Edwards wants more investment in noise absorbent fencing along the route from Loudwater through to Oxfordshire.

He said: "If this was a new motorway they would have dug down four feet to shield people from the noise, that is not something that can be done retrospectively.

"It was built before anyone could spell environment, there is no environmental protection."

After the meeting, David Lidington, MP for Aylesbury, said: "Ken Edwards and his team told us that the M40 is an old motorway which would fail current design standards.

"As a result, my constituents in Stokenchurch, and other residents in villages such as Loudwater, Lane End and Lewknor, live closer to the route than would be allowed today and suffer from dangerously high noise levels as a result.

"Yet it could take decades for quietening to be considered.

"The Government's priorities seem to be weighted against rural areas and do not take enough account of the environment, for example the fact that the motorway runs right through the Chiltern Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

"I shall be tabling questions in Parliament to encourage ministers to have a good look at the problems suffered by residents in Bucks and Oxfordshire."

Members of the M40 CEG met with the Highways Agency, 12 parish councils and representatives from district councils on Wednesday.

Darren Rhoden, from the Highways Agency, said: "We presented the findings of our study and unfortunately the identified locations do not meet the requirements for noise reduction work.

"But we will when needed lay the smoother, quieter road surface in that area."

• Print
• Email
• Share