Environmental /Economic Development Issues In

The role of environmental/economic development issues in the Polish motorway and roads programme shows several similarities with the UK, albeit starting off much later. The paper reviews the development of government policy on these issues in relation to the evolving politics of Poland since 1989. The Socialist (reformed Communist) governments are less interested in environmental issues and argue that the motorways programme will boost national and regional economic development. The Solidarity oriented coalitions (anti Communist) are lukewarm about motorway development, especially arguing on the basis of Western research that the argued boost to the economy is negligible. The extent to which these political stances reflect debate in the public domain is assessed by a content analysis of material in press archives. It finds that environmental/economic development issues are not in fact prominent, and are overshadowed by financing issues. However, environmental issues seem to dominate economic development issues to the extent that they are discussed at all in the media. It is suggested that debate may occur in other fora, and a survey of Polish local authorities provides evidence on the nature of communication between central and local government. The survey also provides evidence on the local authorities relative attitudes on environmental/economic development issues. The preliminary results suggest that communication between central and local government is quite limited on these issues, while local authorities seem far more interested in the economic development possibilities of the planned motorway and roads network than in any associated environmental problems.