Failing at

Congestion levels leave M1 heading for heart attack

Jan 10, 2010

Sunday Times Editorialcreate an image led magazine cover and article for the Sunday Times, based around the 50th anniversary of the M1

t was forged in the white heat of Britain’s postwar payday, the country’s first inter-urban highway linking the industrial heartland to the great metropolis.

Such was the enthusiasm for the M1 that a public inquiry to approve it lasted barely half an hour. When the first section opened on November 2, 1959, Britain caught up with its wartime foes whose Autobahnen and autostrada had been running for decades.

The first cars to glide on to the empty carriageway north of Watford became the pioneers of a revolution in travel, trade and personal freedom. The milestones of the M1 became forever seared into the history of

Britain. In 1966 it was finally connected to London. As Britain careered towards the energy crisis of

1973 the first motorway lighting was added. And when the country stopped to mourn

Diana, Princess of Wales, the northbound carriageway was closed and pedestrians

were ushered on to the road to shower roses on the cortège.

That same year, 1997, seven times the number of cars originally envisaged for the road travelled along its southern sections. The pressures coming to bear on the backbone of Britain were beginning to tell.

For the commuters crawling through the worst bottlenecks on Monday morning, the motorway’s 50th anniversary will bring little cheer. The euphoria of travel on a road which could be read as a parable for modern Britain with its ups and downs is long gone.

The outlook is little better. The Government forecasts a near 40 per cent increase in traffic by 2041. Delays will become worse and the cost of congestion will rise by £25 billion by 2025. In the absence of major improvements, cars using the M1 will travel no faster than 50mph along almost half of the motorway at peak times. Traffic will grind to a halt on many sections.

“The M1 was once a revolution in travel as Britain’s first long-distance motorway,” said Paul Watters, the AA’s head of roads policy. “When it opened it was able to satisfy Britain’s rapidly growing demand for motor travel; however, today it struggles to deliver.”

Apart from a 14-mile stretch in the East Midlands, the Government has no plans to widen the M1 or to build new roads to alleviate congestion. Instead, the hard shoulder will be opened up to traffic at peak times on the busiest stretches. New Labour hoped to get people out of their cars and on to public transport, but experts have questioned whether the approach has worked when 93 per cent of passengers and 89 per cent of freight still travel by road.

“Current transport policy has failed, will continue to fail and is untenable, with traffic congestion continuing to get worse,” said Professor John Wootton at the University of Southampton’s Transportation Research Group. Professor Stephen Glaister, director

of the RAC Foundation, said that the schemes planned for the M1 were “nowhere near an

adequate response in the long term to this kind of growth”.Where the M1 once offered speed and liberty, many

now fear its delays and inconvenience. Academics argue that the best way to rejuvenate the motorway is to charge drivers for using it at peak times to reduce congestion.

“I think that it will become inevitable,” Professor Glaister said. “I think that future governments will be driven towards time-and-distance-based charging . . . partly because they cannot build the capacity that is needed and partly because they need the cash.”

But the main political parties are unconvinced by road pricing, and there is even less enthusiasm from motorists at the prospect of paying each time they drive along the M1. The Government has rebuffed its own advisers who recommended the introduction of road pricing. A Conservative Government would be just as hostile to the proposals. Only the Liberal Democrats are expected to enter the general election with a manifesto pledge to charge drivers on motorways and trunk roads.

“The future has to be road pricing. You can’t build your way out of congestion,” said Norman Baker, the party’s transport spokesman.

Officials acknowledge in private that a decade from now people may be forced to pay or be obliged to use car-sharing lanes on the motorway.

For drivers taking to the road on Monday morning it may come as some solace that they do not yet have to pay for their dubious pleasure.

“Where the M1 once offered speed and liberty, many now fear its delays and inconvenience”

It is likely that the futurewill see us have to savefor our journeys up

and down theM1 motorway

SUNDAY TIMES 10TH JANUARY 2010 4

traffictakes it’s toll

I

diagram showing a predicted pricing scheme for the M1

10 miles

20 miles

30 miles

40 miles

£4£3£2£1

M1

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

Sunday Times Editorialcreate an image led magazine cover and article for the Sunday Times, based around the 50th anniversary of the M1

t was forged in the white heat of Britain’s postwar payday, the country’s first inter-urban highway linking the industrial heartland to the great metropolis.

Such was the enthusiasm for the M1 that a public inquiry to approve it lasted barely half an hour. When the first section opened on November 2, 1959, Britain caught up with its wartime foes whose Autobahnen and autostrada had been running for decades.

The first cars to glide on to the empty carriageway north of Watford became the pioneers of a revolution in travel, trade and personal freedom. The milestones of the M1 became forever seared into the history of

Britain. In 1966 it was finally connected to London. As Britain careered towards the energy crisis of

1973 the first motorway lighting was added. And when the country stopped to mourn

Diana, Princess of Wales, the northbound carriageway was closed and pedestrians

were ushered on to the road to shower roses on the cortège.

That same year, 1997, seven times the number of cars originally envisaged for the road travelled along its southern sections. The pressures coming to bear on the backbone of Britain were beginning to tell.

For the commuters crawling through the worst bottlenecks on Monday morning, the motorway’s 50th anniversary will bring little cheer. The euphoria of travel on a road which could be read as a parable for modern Britain with its ups and downs is long gone.

The outlook is little better. The Government forecasts a near 40 per cent increase in traffic by 2041. Delays will become worse and the cost of congestion will rise by £25 billion by 2025. In the absence of major improvements, cars using the M1 will travel no faster than 50mph along almost half of the motorway at peak times. Traffic will grind to a halt on many sections.

“The M1 was once a revolution in travel as Britain’s first long-distance motorway,” said Paul Watters, the AA’s head of roads policy. “When it opened it was able to satisfy Britain’s rapidly growing demand for motor travel; however, today it struggles to deliver.”

Apart from a 14-mile stretch in the East Midlands, the Government has no plans to widen the M1 or to build new roads to alleviate congestion. Instead, the hard shoulder will be opened up to traffic at peak times on the busiest stretches. New Labour hoped to get people out of their cars and on to public transport, but experts have questioned whether the approach has worked when 93 per cent of passengers and 89 per cent of freight still travel by road.

“Current transport policy has failed, will continue to fail and is untenable, with traffic congestion continuing to get worse,” said Professor John Wootton at the University of Southampton’s Transportation Research Group. Professor Stephen Glaister, director

of the RAC Foundation, said that the schemes planned for the M1 were “nowhere near an

adequate response in the long term to this kind of growth”.Where the M1 once offered speed and liberty, many

now fear its delays and inconvenience. Academics argue that the best way to rejuvenate the motorway is to charge drivers for using it at peak times to reduce congestion.

“I think that it will become inevitable,” Professor Glaister said. “I think that future governments will be driven towards time-and-distance-based charging . . . partly because they cannot build the capacity that is needed and partly because they need the cash.”

But the main political parties are unconvinced by road pricing, and there is even less enthusiasm from motorists at the prospect of paying each time they drive along the M1. The Government has rebuffed its own advisers who recommended the introduction of road pricing. A Conservative Government would be just as hostile to the proposals. Only the Liberal Democrats are expected to enter the general election with a manifesto pledge to charge drivers on motorways and trunk roads.

“The future has to be road pricing. You can’t build your way out of congestion,” said Norman Baker, the party’s transport spokesman.

Officials acknowledge in private that a decade from now people may be forced to pay or be obliged to use car-sharing lanes on the motorway.

For drivers taking to the road on Monday morning it may come as some solace that they do not yet have to pay for their dubious pleasure.

“Where the M1 once offered speed and liberty, many now fear its delays and inconvenience”

It is likely that the futurewill see us have to savefor our journeys up

and down theM1 motorway

SUNDAY TIMES 10TH JANUARY 2010 4

traffictakes it’s toll

I

diagram showing a predicted pricing scheme for the M1

10 miles

20 miles

30 miles

40 miles

£4£3£2£1

M1

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

10miles

Sunday Times Editorialcreate an image led magazine cover and article for the Sunday Times, based around the 50th anniversary of the M1

08 JANUARY 2009

Campaigners have attacked Britain’s £2 billion thirst for bottled water as “environmental insanity” after a report showed that tap water in the UK is among the safest and purest.

ExpensiveNaturally More than two billion litres

of bottled water fly of shop shelves every year, one of the highest growth areas in

retail. At an average of 95p per litre, it costs as much as petrol, while the average cost of tap water in the UK is £1 per 10,000 litres.

Worldwide it is estimated that 154 billion liters of bottled water, generating revenues of £58 bn, are now consumed each year - an increase of 57 per cent in five years.

Vicky Hird, senior food campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: “People are being sold an incredibly seductive image with bottled water - that it is the key to health and well being. But what is not recognized is the huge cost in wasted resources that bottled water represents compared to the very high-quality water that is sitting in our taps at a fraction of the price to the planet and to our wallets.’’

Richard Ehrlich, the wine writer, said yesterday that he had always favored tap water over bottled water. After carrying out a blind taste test of tap water versus Evian and Volvic, he praised his winning glass of Thames Water as “so pure and neutrally sweet.”

Britain imports about 25 per cent of its bottled water, the vast majority from France. One recent study calculated that the bottled water industry in the UK generated annually about 33,200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions through transport - equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 6,000 homes. According to industry figures, Britons consume about 1.5 billion litres of water each year.

Despite a reduction of 30 per cent in the amount of PET that goes into each bottle, only about 10 per cent of the bottles are recycled. Most go to landfill, where they take 450 years to break down.

While Britons drink an average of 37 litres per person a year, the UK lags far behind the world’s most profligate bottled water consumers. The French drink 141 litres; the Mexicans 169 litres and the Italians have the highest per capita consumption at 184 litres. Representatives of the industry insisted yesterday that consumers and manufacturers were paying the extra cost of bottled water through its elevated cost.

A spokesman for the British Soft Drinks Association said: “Bottled water is a matter of consumer choice - it offers convenience, a choice of taste and composition and the fact that it is unprocessed.”

Who’s the thirstiest of them all? Average amount of bottled water consumed, per person, each year (litres)

Italy, 184

Mexico, 169

France, 141

Britain, 37

BRITONS CONSUME ABOUT 1.5 BIllION lITRES OF WATER

EACH yEAR

AT AN AVERAgE OF 95p PER lITRE, BOTTlED

WATER COSTS AS MUCH AS PETROl

08 JANUARY 2009

Campaigners have attacked Britain’s £2 billion thirst for bottled water as “environmental insanity” after a report showed that tap water in the UK is among the safest and purest.

ExpensiveNaturally More than two billion litres

of bottled water fly of shop shelves every year, one of the highest growth areas in

retail. At an average of 95p per litre, it costs as much as petrol, while the average cost of tap water in the UK is £1 per 10,000 litres.

Worldwide it is estimated that 154 billion liters of bottled water, generating revenues of £58 bn, are now consumed each year - an increase of 57 per cent in five years.

Vicky Hird, senior food campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: “People are being sold an incredibly seductive image with bottled water - that it is the key to health and well being. But what is not recognized is the huge cost in wasted resources that bottled water represents compared to the very high-quality water that is sitting in our taps at a fraction of the price to the planet and to our wallets.’’

Richard Ehrlich, the wine writer, said yesterday that he had always favored tap water over bottled water. After carrying out a blind taste test of tap water versus Evian and Volvic, he praised his winning glass of Thames Water as “so pure and neutrally sweet.”

Britain imports about 25 per cent of its bottled water, the vast majority from France. One recent study calculated that the bottled water industry in the UK generated annually about 33,200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions through transport - equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 6,000 homes. According to industry figures, Britons consume about 1.5 billion litres of water each year.

Despite a reduction of 30 per cent in the amount of PET that goes into each bottle, only about 10 per cent of the bottles are recycled. Most go to landfill, where they take 450 years to break down.

While Britons drink an average of 37 litres per person a year, the UK lags far behind the world’s most profligate bottled water consumers. The French drink 141 litres; the Mexicans 169 litres and the Italians have the highest per capita consumption at 184 litres. Representatives of the industry insisted yesterday that consumers and manufacturers were paying the extra cost of bottled water through its elevated cost.

A spokesman for the British Soft Drinks Association said: “Bottled water is a matter of consumer choice - it offers convenience, a choice of taste and composition and the fact that it is unprocessed.”

Who’s the thirstiest of them all? Average amount of bottled water consumed, per person, each year (litres)

Italy, 184

Mexico, 169

France, 141

Britain, 37

BRITONS CONSUME ABOUT 1.5 BIllION lITRES OF WATER

EACH yEAR

AT AN AVERAgE OF 95p PER lITRE, BOTTlED

WATER COSTS AS MUCH AS PETROl

‘Truly, the loudest noise is the ticking of the clock’

21 22

Technology - Re-chargable Rollers

A B

rief

His

tory

While we assume that the vast major-ity of you would be perfectly content with an all electric MINI Cooper (or a maybe Porsche), some just won’t have anything but the best. For those of you who can actually consider putting a Rolls-Royce in the garage, you’ll be thrilled to know that CEO Tom Perves is spending some serious time thinking about a battery powered Phantom. ‘Many of our customers do small milages exclusively in the city’, says Perves, who took over the helm of the BMW-owned Rolls-Royce in July 2008. ‘For these customers an electric equivalent would be ideal’.

Apparently he recently drove the electric BMW Mini and was bowled over by the experience. ‘Quite fantastic and fun’ was how he described it and he thinks an electric Roller would be perfectly in keeping with the RR brand, saying, ‘We stand for unmatched re�nement and you can’t get a quieter and less intrusive engine than a well

1974 - Janguard-sebring citicar30-40 mph top speed.

1997 - General motors EV150-75 miles per charge and 80 mph top speed.

2001 - Toyota Rav 4 EV100-120 miles per charge and 78 mph top speed.

2008 - BMW Mini E150 miles per charge and 95 mph top speed.

constructed electric motor. Truly the loudest noise you would hear would be the ticking of the clock’, he says referring to an old Rolls marketing message. ‘We also stand for strong and instant torque - and an electric motor delivers maximum torque instantly. �e “wa�ability” would be fantastic’.

Waftability indeed. I’m not sure I’ve experienced that directly, but then I’ve not had a huge opportunity to travel in a Rolls-Royce. For those who have there’s another argument for considering an electric version. Purves sees the day when some city or state authority’s may ban cars that exceed a certain level of CO2, so in those circumstances he may need an electric car merely to sell in certain parts of the world. Not that he’d be scrapping production of the petrol v12 original. A�er all, customers like his will probably buy one of each - the v12 for longer journeys and the electric Rolls for the school run.

Purves does not think an electric Rolls-Royce would be difficult too engineer or take too many years to deliver - though he wouldn’t be drawn to exact timing. He believes it could be partly developed and engineered at Rolls’ headquarters in Goodwood, with back-up from BMW in Munich - using experience from the electric Mini project.

�e Mini E uses lithium ion batteries with a range of 150 miles, “more than adequate for Rolls customers” says Purves with a top speed of 95 mph and 0-62mph in 8.5 seconds. Which would again be sufficient for an electric Rolls-Royce Phantom.

‘Truly, the loudest noise

e-chargableRoller

R �e �rst

‘Truly, the loudest noise is the ticking of the clock’

21 22

Technology - Re-chargable Rollers

A B

rief

His

tory

While we assume that the vast major-ity of you would be perfectly content with an all electric MINI Cooper (or a maybe Porsche), some just won’t have anything but the best. For those of you who can actually consider putting a Rolls-Royce in the garage, you’ll be thrilled to know that CEO Tom Perves is spending some serious time thinking about a battery powered Phantom. ‘Many of our customers do small milages exclusively in the city’, says Perves, who took over the helm of the BMW-owned Rolls-Royce in July 2008. ‘For these customers an electric equivalent would be ideal’.

Apparently he recently drove the electric BMW Mini and was bowled over by the experience. ‘Quite fantastic and fun’ was how he described it and he thinks an electric Roller would be perfectly in keeping with the RR brand, saying, ‘We stand for unmatched re�nement and you can’t get a quieter and less intrusive engine than a well

1974 - Janguard-sebring citicar30-40 mph top speed.

1997 - General motors EV150-75 miles per charge and 80 mph top speed.

2001 - Toyota Rav 4 EV100-120 miles per charge and 78 mph top speed.

2008 - BMW Mini E150 miles per charge and 95 mph top speed.

constructed electric motor. Truly the loudest noise you would hear would be the ticking of the clock’, he says referring to an old Rolls marketing message. ‘We also stand for strong and instant torque - and an electric motor delivers maximum torque instantly. �e “wa�ability” would be fantastic’.

Waftability indeed. I’m not sure I’ve experienced that directly, but then I’ve not had a huge opportunity to travel in a Rolls-Royce. For those who have there’s another argument for considering an electric version. Purves sees the day when some city or state authority’s may ban cars that exceed a certain level of CO2, so in those circumstances he may need an electric car merely to sell in certain parts of the world. Not that he’d be scrapping production of the petrol v12 original. A�er all, customers like his will probably buy one of each - the v12 for longer journeys and the electric Rolls for the school run.

Purves does not think an electric Rolls-Royce would be difficult too engineer or take too many years to deliver - though he wouldn’t be drawn to exact timing. He believes it could be partly developed and engineered at Rolls’ headquarters in Goodwood, with back-up from BMW in Munich - using experience from the electric Mini project.

�e Mini E uses lithium ion batteries with a range of 150 miles, “more than adequate for Rolls customers” says Purves with a top speed of 95 mph and 0-62mph in 8.5 seconds. Which would again be sufficient for an electric Rolls-Royce Phantom.

‘Truly, the loudest noise

e-chargableRoller

R �e �rst

14

+

The worlds most powerful batteryis 40 megawatts consisting of 13,760 high performance nickel cadmium cells.Thats the equivelant to 44,444,444 aa alkaline cells. -

While we imagine that the vast majority of you would be perfectly content with an all-electric MINI Cooper

(or a Porsche, if nothing else), some debutants and Chuck Bass wannabes just won’t have anything but the best. For those out there who can actually consider putting a Rolls-Royce in the garage, you’ll be thrilled to know that CEO Tom Purves

is spending some serious time thinking about a battery powered Phantom.

Rolls-Royce CEO Tom Purvis would like to make an electric powered Phantom. ‘Many of our customers do small mileages exclusively in the city,’ says Purves, who took over the helm of BMW-owned Rolls-Royce in July 2008. ‘For these customers, an electric Rolls-Royce would be ideal.’ Apparently he recently drove the electric BMW Mini and was bowled over by the experience.

Quiet, fantastic and fun is how he described it and he thinks an electric Roller would be perfectly in keeping with the RR brand, saying,

‘We also stand for strong and instant torque and an electric motor delivers Maximum torque instantly. The “waftabillity” would be fantastic.’

An, electric Rolls-Royce, says Purves, would be in keeping with the Rolls brand. ‘We also stand for unmatched refinement and you can’t get a quieter and less intrusive engine than a well engineered electric motor. Truly, the loudest noise you would hear would be the tick of the clock,’ he says, referring to an old Rolls marketing message. ‘We also stand for strong and instant torque, and an electric motor delivers maximum torque instantly.

Electric Rolls-Royce: the legal argument

Waftability indeed. I’m not sure I’ve experienced that directly, but then I’ve not had huge opportunity to travel in a Rolls-Royce. For those who have there’s another argument for considering an electric version. Purves sees the day when some city or state authorities may ban cars that exceed a certain level of CO2, so in those circumstances he may need an electric car merely to sell in certain parts of the world.

Not that he’d be scrapping production of the petrol v12 original. After all, customers like his will probably buy one of each, the v12 for longer journeys and the electric Rolls for the school run.

Purves does not think an electric Rolls-Royce project would be difficult to engineer or take too many years to deliver, though he wouldn’t be drawn on exact timing. He believes it could be partly engineered and developed at Rolls’ headquarters in Goodwood, with back-up from BMW in Munich, using experience from the electric Mini project.

The Mini E uses lithium ion batteries and has a range of 150 miles, more than adequate for many Rolls customers, says Purves. The Mini E’s top speed is pegged to 95mph and 0-62mph takes 8.5 seconds. That would be sufficient for an electric urban version of the Phantom.

Naturally, the petrol V12 would still be offered. Purves reckons many Phantom customers would buy both an electric Rolls for urban use and petrol Rolls for longer journeys.

Written and published by Rikki Cove

Spirit of Electricity

x1 = x44,444,444

AutomotionSWISS ISS

W

14

+

The worlds most powerful batteryis 40 megawatts consisting of 13,760 high performance nickel cadmium cells.Thats the equivelant to 44,444,444 aa alkaline cells. -

While we imagine that the vast majority of you would be perfectly content with an all-electric MINI Cooper

(or a Porsche, if nothing else), some debutants and Chuck Bass wannabes just won’t have anything but the best. For those out there who can actually consider putting a Rolls-Royce in the garage, you’ll be thrilled to know that CEO Tom Purves

is spending some serious time thinking about a battery powered Phantom.

Rolls-Royce CEO Tom Purvis would like to make an electric powered Phantom. ‘Many of our customers do small mileages exclusively in the city,’ says Purves, who took over the helm of BMW-owned Rolls-Royce in July 2008. ‘For these customers, an electric Rolls-Royce would be ideal.’ Apparently he recently drove the electric BMW Mini and was bowled over by the experience.

Quiet, fantastic and fun is how he described it and he thinks an electric Roller would be perfectly in keeping with the RR brand, saying,

‘We also stand for strong and instant torque and an electric motor delivers Maximum torque instantly. The “waftabillity” would be fantastic.’

An, electric Rolls-Royce, says Purves, would be in keeping with the Rolls brand. ‘We also stand for unmatched refinement and you can’t get a quieter and less intrusive engine than a well engineered electric motor. Truly, the loudest noise you would hear would be the tick of the clock,’ he says, referring to an old Rolls marketing message. ‘We also stand for strong and instant torque, and an electric motor delivers maximum torque instantly.

Electric Rolls-Royce: the legal argument

Waftability indeed. I’m not sure I’ve experienced that directly, but then I’ve not had huge opportunity to travel in a Rolls-Royce. For those who have there’s another argument for considering an electric version. Purves sees the day when some city or state authorities may ban cars that exceed a certain level of CO2, so in those circumstances he may need an electric car merely to sell in certain parts of the world.

Not that he’d be scrapping production of the petrol v12 original. After all, customers like his will probably buy one of each, the v12 for longer journeys and the electric Rolls for the school run.

Purves does not think an electric Rolls-Royce project would be difficult to engineer or take too many years to deliver, though he wouldn’t be drawn on exact timing. He believes it could be partly engineered and developed at Rolls’ headquarters in Goodwood, with back-up from BMW in Munich, using experience from the electric Mini project.

The Mini E uses lithium ion batteries and has a range of 150 miles, more than adequate for many Rolls customers, says Purves. The Mini E’s top speed is pegged to 95mph and 0-62mph takes 8.5 seconds. That would be sufficient for an electric urban version of the Phantom.

Naturally, the petrol V12 would still be offered. Purves reckons many Phantom customers would buy both an electric Rolls for urban use and petrol Rolls for longer journeys.

Written and published by Rikki Cove

Spirit of Electricity

x1 = x44,444,444

AutomotionSWISS ISS

W

EnvironmentEn

viro

nmen

t

20NewEconomy NewEconomy

21

report report

Bottle water sales are growing at nearly 9 per cent

a year one of the highest growth areas in retail, duplicating every five years.

At an average of 95p per litre, it costs as much as petrol, while the average cost of tap water in the UK is £1 per 10,000 litres. Britain’s represent 16 per cent of all soft drinks sold in the UK, that mean a approximately 37 litres of bottled water a year per Briton, far behind the world’s most profligate bottled water consumers. The French drink 141 litres, the Mexicans 169 litres and the Italians have the highest per capita consumption at 184 litres. A spokesman for the British Soft Drinks Association said: “Bottled water is a matter of consumer choice it offers convenience, a choice of taste and composition and the fact that it is unprocessed. Recycling is an issue that encompasses manufacturers, consumers and local authorities but those factors are already included in the cost that people are paying for bottled water.”

“The water coming out of your unloved kitchen tap is just as pure, if not purer.”

emissions through transport, equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 6,000 homes. According to industry figures, Britons consume about 1.5 billion litres of water each year from bottles made out of polyethylene terephthalate or PET - a plastic made out of crude oil extracts-, only about 10 per cent of the ottles are recycled, most go to landfill, where they take 450 years to break down. Richard Ehrlich, the wine writer, said yesterday that he had always favoured tap water over bottled water. After carrying out a blind taste test of tap water versus Evian and Volvic, he praised his winning glass of Thames Water as “so pure and neutral it was almost sweet”. Urging consumers to follow his lead, he added: “Do you really think that bottled water is purer than the tap water provided by your local water company? Chances are that it is not. The water coming out of your unloved kitchen tap is just as pure, if not purer.”

Report by Patricia Cogorno

Campaigners have attacked Britain’s £2bn thirst for bottled water as “environmental insanity” after a report showed that tap water in the UK is among the softest and purest in the world.

Green groups said that the statistics served to highlight the damaging ecological impact of bottled water, the energy cost of producing a billion plastic bottles using crude oil, transporting the water over hundreds or thousands of miles and then disposing of the containers in landfill sites or incinerators made bottled water one of Britain’s most wasteful luxuries. Vicky Hird, senior food campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: People are being sold an incredibly seductive image with bottled water - that it is the key to health and well being- but what is not recognised is the huge cost in wasted resources that bottled water represents compared to the very high quality water that is sitting in our taps at an fraction of the price to the planet and to our wallets.’ Britain imports about 25 per cent of its bottled water, the vast majority from France. Transporting water around the globe involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels causing the emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere. One recent study calculated that the bottled water industry in the UK generated annually about 33,200 tons of carbon dioxide

So pure and neutral it was almost sweet The cost of the tap

water in the UK is £1 per 10,000 litres

High quality standards

Distributed by an energy efficient infrastructure

Environmentallysafe quality, pure premium from the RIVER

THAMES

Environment

Envi

ronm

ent

20NewEconomy NewEconomy

21

report report

Bottle water sales are growing at nearly 9 per cent

a year one of the highest growth areas in retail, duplicating every five years.

At an average of 95p per litre, it costs as much as petrol, while the average cost of tap water in the UK is £1 per 10,000 litres. Britain’s represent 16 per cent of all soft drinks sold in the UK, that mean a approximately 37 litres of bottled water a year per Briton, far behind the world’s most profligate bottled water consumers. The French drink 141 litres, the Mexicans 169 litres and the Italians have the highest per capita consumption at 184 litres. A spokesman for the British Soft Drinks Association said: “Bottled water is a matter of consumer choice it offers convenience, a choice of taste and composition and the fact that it is unprocessed. Recycling is an issue that encompasses manufacturers, consumers and local authorities but those factors are already included in the cost that people are paying for bottled water.”

“The water coming out of your unloved kitchen tap is just as pure, if not purer.”

emissions through transport, equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 6,000 homes. According to industry figures, Britons consume about 1.5 billion litres of water each year from bottles made out of polyethylene terephthalate or PET - a plastic made out of crude oil extracts-, only about 10 per cent of the ottles are recycled, most go to landfill, where they take 450 years to break down. Richard Ehrlich, the wine writer, said yesterday that he had always favoured tap water over bottled water. After carrying out a blind taste test of tap water versus Evian and Volvic, he praised his winning glass of Thames Water as “so pure and neutral it was almost sweet”. Urging consumers to follow his lead, he added: “Do you really think that bottled water is purer than the tap water provided by your local water company? Chances are that it is not. The water coming out of your unloved kitchen tap is just as pure, if not purer.”

Report by Patricia Cogorno

Campaigners have attacked Britain’s £2bn thirst for bottled water as “environmental insanity” after a report showed that tap water in the UK is among the softest and purest in the world.

Green groups said that the statistics served to highlight the damaging ecological impact of bottled water, the energy cost of producing a billion plastic bottles using crude oil, transporting the water over hundreds or thousands of miles and then disposing of the containers in landfill sites or incinerators made bottled water one of Britain’s most wasteful luxuries. Vicky Hird, senior food campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: People are being sold an incredibly seductive image with bottled water - that it is the key to health and well being- but what is not recognised is the huge cost in wasted resources that bottled water represents compared to the very high quality water that is sitting in our taps at an fraction of the price to the planet and to our wallets.’ Britain imports about 25 per cent of its bottled water, the vast majority from France. Transporting water around the globe involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels causing the emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere. One recent study calculated that the bottled water industry in the UK generated annually about 33,200 tons of carbon dioxide

So pure and neutral it was almost sweet The cost of the tap

water in the UK is £1 per 10,000 litres

High quality standards

Distributed by an energy efficient infrastructure

Environmentallysafe quality, pure premium from the RIVER

THAMES

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