Friday's 'Soapbox' asked a fair question. How can we Greens say both that the NDR will be a white elephant and that it will induce extra traffic onto the road network. Surely, if it creates extra traffic, this road will at least be being used, and so can hardly be a 'white elephant'?!

If the NDR is built, then in the short to medium term, it may temporarily alleviate congestion in a few places. But it will also generate lots of extra traffic, thus quickly canceling out the congestion-reduction benefits that are claimed for it, adding to noise and pollution, increasing our very own Norfolk contribution to the carbon emissions which are threatening the very future of human life on this planet.

In the longer term, when we in Britain finally start taking serious action to address climate change, such as road-user charging, much higher fuel taxes and massive investment in cycling and public transport, the NDR will become a little-used white elephant, a relic of the primitive days before we all acted collectively to improve our environment and to help save the world from the terrible threat of devastating climate change.

Let's take just half what it would cost to build the NDR and together create a public transport system for the Norwich area which will be the envy of the rest of Britain. Let's do out bit to save the world from the impending global warming cataclysm. Let's avoid increasing car-dependence in the short-medium term, given that we know that in the longer term we are going to have to drastically scale back the use of cars.

The days of investment in roads are numbered. Let's for once be ahead of the curve, in Norfolk - not behind the times.

Yours sincerely,