Environmental Campaigner Sarah Allen (www.rhubarbandrunnerbeans.co.uk) writes for the Journal.

Back in February 2023, the Welsh government scrapped all major road-building projects over environmental concerns whereas here, Devon County Council have put the building of the Dinan Way extension out to tender; a major new road scheme.

Much talk around this extension involves ‘levelling up’ and ‘completing’ Dinan Way and it is explained, often, in a positive light as it will remove large volumes of traffic from unsuitable residential roads. This is, of course, important and crucial but it will put these vehicles onto a different residential road, Dinan Way: a 30mph residential street.

Another factor being pushed as a positive is the new pedestrian and cycle trail which would be built along the Dinan Way Extension. This is, of course, a valuable way to create connectivity and move people out of their cars and into a low carbon mode of travelling.

Read more: Exmouth's Dinan Way extension scheme to go out to tender

Having said all that, I still feel that these conversations miss the point! The point is that we are in a climate emergency, as declared by the UK parliament in May 2019. Building this new road will not reduce carbon emissions, it will probably keep them the same i.e. the same amount of traffic following a slightly different route through our town. Plus increase emissions due to the carbon emitted in the construction process. The shared cycle and footpath could well contribute to lowering emissions, so just build that!

I think it can be easy to forget that we are in a climate emergency. Most of the time when we go about our everyday life, it’s not obvious. It’s also hard to reimagine a different world, including one in which we aren’t dependant on our cars to get from A to B, but we have to! We’re in a time of increasing uncertainty over whether our planet can remain a healthy home for us. However, it’s also a time of great possibility as we, as a creative and innovative species, can work on solutions to not only secure the stability of our environment but to create a new way of living that is better for all life. So, lets not just continue with the same things that got us in this mess in the first place! Instead of a new road, what could we create?