Councillors Criticise ‘Token’ Car Free Day

“Governments and councils need to work to deliver sustainable and technological change which will benefit the environment not support meaningless anti-car gestures.”
This was the message of Conservative Councillors at Monday?s meeting of the County Council at which they rejected Liberal-Democrat and Green calls to participate in today’s (Thursday) European Car Free Day in Oxford City.

Branding the day “a token gesture,” Councillor David Robertson (Cabinet member for transport) said:
“The County Council has already put its money where its mouth is. Take congestion in Oxford City, for example. We said in our manifesto that we would support park and rides by making them free. We?ve done that for those park and rides this council owns.
“If City Councillors really wanted to support the aims of European Car Free Day they would follow our example and do the same for their own park and rides. That would have more impact than a tokenistic gesture.”

Speaking during the debate, Cllr Dr. John Howell (Dorchester & Berinsfield) lambasted the whole European Car Free Day project.He said:”This sort of intellectually dishonest gesture holds out to people the illusion that today there?s a real alternative to motorised transport. For many people, especially in rural areas, the car is a necessity which has improved people?s lives. Even the UN point out that without real mobility the poor simply get poorer.
“A billion tonnes of carbon could be saved by 2050 simply by doubling the mileage of all cars from 30 to 60 mpg. That means working with the car industry.
“Neither the Liberal-Democrats nor the Greens seem to understand that making the industry and the car scapegoats is not going to achieve sustainable change. Instead, they prefer simply to reach for futile gestures.”