Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Environment, Transport and the Regions – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 11 May 1999.
Is the Minister aware of the enormous damage that is being done to the environment—particularly the ancient trees of Epping Forest—as a result of the amount of traffic that is passing through the forest because of the cancellation of the planned north-facing slip roads at junction 5 of the M11, which would have created, effectively, the Epping bypass? Given the new evidence of the vast environmental damage being done to those protected trees, which have been there for more than 150 years, will the Minister reconsider his decision not to build the north-facing slip roads, and build them?