Protestors at Shirehall, Shrewsbury ahead of council decision on the North West Relief Road

Shropshire Star

People gathered to protest atShirehall, Shrewsbury ahead of a council committee decision on the North West Relief Road.

Transcript

00:00 Well it's the county centre, it's really important in that respect.

00:05 We do come here quite a lot anyway, sometimes to shop,

00:09 but we know that there's places of importance around to visit, cultural places of importance.

00:15 And the road has always been, we've been aware of that since before we actually moved up here,

00:21 because it's made a lot of nationwide headlines.

00:25 We're very concerned about those, as you know, we're environmentalists.

00:30 So we've been engaged, but I suppose preoccupied with actually settling into where we are,

00:36 so we've got an opportunity actually to come and meet people up here,

00:40 and be part of something which is really important, like we were saying earlier.

00:44 But environmentally, when you say you're engaged, for environmental reasons, that's for climate change?

00:51 Yes, we're in a climate emergency, and we keep pumping more and more fossil fuels and carbon into the atmosphere.

00:58 We are members of Extinction Rebellion too, so we've been, ever since they got going,

01:05 we've been very much a part of their actions and demonstrations.

01:14 So how did you arrive into it?

01:18 We've got an electric car.

01:20 And you can square that circle?

01:23 Over time, because we've moved from quite an urban area in 2021 to a rural area,

01:29 you do really need access to a car.

01:32 For the first few years we shared a car, but about six months ago, that neighbour is moving,

01:37 so we couldn't share, so we've bought a second-hand electric car.

01:42 That's all about having one and then sharing it.

01:44 And then we share it with two other households.

01:47 Before we had one on subscription, to try it out.

01:52 If the infrastructure isn't quite there yet, the government hasn't invested enough for people to fully go over to electric cars.

02:00 I think that's what I feel like.

02:03 The government wants to have all this net zero and these green credentials,

02:08 yet they're going in exactly the wrong direction.

02:11 There's not enough charging points.

02:13 We're now investing still more in new oil fields, new gas.

02:17 It's just ridiculous.

02:19 We feel that they're permanently under pressure from the fossil fuel industry

02:24 to keep on in every way they can, to keep supporting them.

02:29 Because I think they're determined to actually get every bit of resource they can,

02:35 to get every bit of fossil fuel out that they can.

02:38 Because that's what they do, is they want to exhaust all the resources.

02:41 It's an even dirtier way of getting oil.

02:44 Countries now are just fracking acres and acres.

02:49 Canada went for the tar sands, and that's done a huge amount of destruction in Canada itself.

02:55 It's that kind of destructiveness that makes an impact on people like us.

03:00 Is there a difference, do you think, between people having cars and building roads?

03:05 Oh, definitely.

03:06 If people have cars, do they need roads to drive?

03:09 No, all the research says if you build a road, more cars will come.

03:12 Look at the way cars are advertised.

03:15 They're actually advertised as vehicles for freedom, and they're definitely not.

03:18 You see the traffic jams.

03:20 They're getting bigger and bigger, which is ridiculous.

03:23 How absurd is that, that they're getting huge cars?

03:25 Even EVs are big.

03:27 And that in itself is environmentally distracting, that they are the size that they are.

03:31 And why are we doing that?

03:33 Why all the emphasis on performance?

03:38 Why? That's ridiculous.

03:40 [drumming]

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