SIR - It is not hard to see why anyone who lives with the daily onslaught of heavy dirty polluting traffic running right through the middle of places like Cross Hills on the A6068 might hope that Transport for the North would fix their problems by building a relief road. Unfortunately, that is not the intention behind their plans to extend the M65.

Their aim is to establish an alternative to the M62 and thus to massively increase the amount of traffic running through our area. No details have yet emerged of the routes they are spending serious money to investigate. The most likely one is to take the new motorway from Colne to Skipton and then to head over the moors towards Harrogate to make the planned join with the A1(M).

All past experience of building major new motorways like this is that they quickly increase traffic on surrounding roads. We are therefore in danger of seeing hundreds of extra trucks speeding through our area and a road almost as crowded as the M62 inflicting extra air pollution onto us.

The impact on the local tourist trade of pushing a major new route through our famous countryside is likely to be hugely damaging and any temporary relief it provides on any local road will soon be overwhelmed by the extra traffic coming off that motorway.

The quickest, cheapest and easiest way of taking significant amounts of freight off our roads would be to restore the Skipton to Colne railway and the most pressing need for infrastructure investment in the north is quick and reliable commuter rail services into and between the major northern cities.

Cllr Andy Brown

Green Party Parliamentary Candidate

Main Street

Cononley