 Alliance against road building |
Alliance against road building |
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To get any info on campaigns, please type the campaign or road name into the search engine on the front page of the Road Block website - http://www.roadblock.org.uk/
Next e-bulletin deadline is 29 August, so please send us your campaign news before then.
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CONTENTS
(1) Transport and climate news –
Road building doesn’t work
Rising cost of roads programme slammed by Select Committee
Local roads and climate change
Regional transport funding carve up
Make car manufactures make green cars
Review of EU Transport White Paper
Stop Climate Chaos
(2) Campaign updates –
M6 Expressway defeated! Now to stop the widening...
A47 Acle Straight - victory!
Titnore Lane (Sussex)
Brunel Link / Harnham Relief Road (Salisbury) - victory!
M74 Extension (Glasgow)
Heysham to M6 Link (Lancaster) - no decision
A628 / A57 Mottram to Tintwistle Bypass (Peak District National Park)
Newbury Bypass snail extinct
Norwich Northern Distributor Road (Norfolk)
A80 upgrade (Scotland)
A391 St Austell Link Road (Cornwall) - victory?
M54 - roads for cash?
South Bristol Ring Road
A3 Hindhead
High Low Newton Bypass (Lake District)
Harlow Northern Bypass (Hertfordshire)
No Widening M1 (Sheffield)
Weymouth Relief Road (Dorset)
No decision on the following roads...
(3) Events –
Climate change camp - 26 Aug - 4 Sept – North England
Stop Climate Chaos mass event - 4 November - central London
(4) Take Action - http://www.roadblock.org.uk/action.htm
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(1) TRANSPORT AND CLIMATE NEWS
Roadbuilding doesn't work!
We know you already know this (in fact it was well established in the 1990's) but roadbuilding doesn't work! New research by consultants for CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, and the government's Countryside Agency assessed the impact on traffic levels, the landscape and subsequent development of three big road schemes from the 1990’s (Newbury, M65 and Polegate Bypass in Sussex). Researchers compared the information in the appraisal of each scheme with the actual impacts that occurred following scheme opening, focusing on the roads’ impacts on landscape, traffic flow and development. In addition, the study team examined ten of the twelve existing ‘one year after’ studies undertaken by the Highways Agency on other trunk road schemes. The report showed that the road schemes generated far more traffic than was predicted. Traffic flows in all three case studies were near or higher than those predicted for the road in 2010 by 2004. The Highways Agency forecast for the A34 Newbury Bypass, completed in 1998, was 30,000 to 36,000 vehicles per day by 2010. The actual level measured in 2004 was 43,800. Meanwhile peak-time congestion within the town is back to original levels. The report also concluded that the government is failing to learn the mistakes of past road schemes and is set to keep repeating the same expensive and devastating mistakes. The report received massive coverage including on the Today programme.
See the Road Block press releases here http://www.roadblock.org.uk/press_releases/2006-07-03.htm
and here http://www.roadblock.org.uk/press_releases/2006-07-03A.htm
Published on 3 July, the Beyond Transport Infrastructure report summary is available to download here: http://www.cpre.org.uk/resources/pub/pdfs/transport/road-transport/beyond-transport-infrastructure-summary.pdf or here: http://www.countryside.gov.uk/LAR/Landscape/PP/planning/Recent_Transport_Research_C.asp
New Transport Secretary emphasises climate change
In a speech to the Transport Atmosphere and Climate Conference on 26 June,
Secretary of State for Transport Douglas Alexander MP said: "There
is no longer any serious scientific doubt that climate change is real, accelerating
and caused by human activities. Put simply, dealing with it is perhaps the
greatest long term challenge we all face. We need to give more people a
real alternative to taking their car". When he was given the job in
May, the PM wrote to Alexander stating “We cannot simply build our
way out of these problems… transport will be critical to our long-term
goal of reducing carbon emissions” instructing him to press on with
road pricing. Keep up the pressure on minister's to reduce road transport
emissions.
Write to .
Regional transport funding carve up
The government finally announced the results of the biggest funding shake up for transport for decades - the Regional Funding Allocations (RFA) on 6 July. Although the government still makes all the ultimate decisions, the government now asks 'the regions' for advice on their priorities for their limited ten-year budgets. DfT accepted the region's advice handed in at the end of January, and reproduced huge long lists of road schemes that would get funding in the next ten years. Road Block is very concerned as the lists included many schemes which had not been approved (like Heysham M6 Link, A120 and Westbury). Some of them (like South Bristol Ring Road) had never been appraised, or even consulted on! Inclusion in the list gives the scheme an elevated status. It allowed Lancaster City Council to crow that the Heysham-M6 Link had been "approved" when it has not. Also Jim Knight, MP for Weymouth, was boasting that this meant the Weymouth Relief Road was now "fully approved", when it is not and is fiercely opposed. Some long-standing road schemes were not prioritised by the region's and therefore were not in the RFA lists. However the DfT is refusing to drop them completely, arguing the region's may want the schemes later (see list here ). This is causing blight and uncertainty for local residents and their local environments.
Road Block wrote to the Transport Secretary, Douglas Alexander, outlining the concerns, and you can see the letter here: http://www.roadblock.org.uk/publications.htm
For press releases see http://www.roadblock.org.uk/press_releases/2006-07-06.htm
and http://transport2000.org.uk/news/maintainNewsArticles.asp?NewsArticleID=312
and http://www.cpre.org.uk/news-releases/news-rel-2006/34-06.htm
You can see the regional lists here:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_localtrans/documents/divisionhomepage/611979.hcsp
Transport Select Committee savages Highways Agency
On 27 July the Transport Select Committee released a scathing report into the Highways Agency which was most critical of the soaring cost of their roads programme. The report said that "The Highways Agency has lost budgetary control" (para 104) , and that "the cost overruns on these projects could be in excess of £1 billion" (para 107), and concluded that "it appears inevitable that costs will rise" (para 103) . It predicted that "yet-to-be-completed road projects would be 50 per cent higher than originally estimated" (para 104), and that "such an increase would be an irresponsible and unacceptable waste of public money" (para 104). This follows another committee report in May which slammed the DfT for losing control of roads costs and urging them to 'pull the plug' on some schemes (see RB bulletin 23 May 06). Road Block submitted evidence to the inquiry that these rises cannot be blamed solely on rising oil prices and inflation. We argue that this is something that has gone on for many years, and is because roadbuilders lie about scheme costs to gain approval for schemes, and the true costs emerge later with the tax payer picking up the tab for useless and expensive road schemes. It is a systemic fault in the approval process.
See ../pressreleases.html
for the Road Block press release,
and http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,1831967,00.html
for media coverage,
Select committee report: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmtran/907/90702.htm
Roads costs go up even more...
A Written Answer from Roads Minister Stephen Ladyman on 24 July revealed
that costs had gone up further since the select committee inquiry in April,
and added another £98 million to the ever increasing tab. That works
out as an increase of more than £1 million a day!
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/cm060724/text/60724w1873.htm#column_746W
See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/30/nroads30.xml
Local roads and climate change
As reported in RB bulletin 26 June, the DfT refused to disclose how much
CO2 will be created by the local roads it has approved, claiming the information
could only be provided "at disproportionate cost". However Road
Block knows that they shouldn't have approved any of those schemes without
knowing the CO2 impacts, so Road Block put in a bid to the DfT to sit down
with a calculator and work out the combined total. As the work is so vital,
Road Block offered a knock-down consultancy price of £150 for the
service. We are still waiting for the answer and suspect they have approved
roads without knowing the CO2 impacts....
See http://society.guardian.co.uk/societyguardian/story/0,,1812322,00.html
and http://www.roadblock.org.uk/press_releases/2006-05-28.htm
Make car manufactures make green cars
The European Union are currently reviewing what to do about tackling carbon
emissions from cars. They are conducting a public consultation into how
to reduce the car's impact on climate change. The car industry voluntarily
agreed in the 1990's to improve fuel efficiency of cars to 140g/km by 2008-9,
but predictably they are going to miss this target by a long way and so
the EU needs to take action to make these targets compulsory. This is your
opportunity to call for an overall policy that will deliver the following:
. Better technology to improve fuel efficiency
. Taxes to make environmentally friendly cars more attractive
. Increased sales and availability of alternative fuels
. Better driving that will cut carbon emissions.
Go to: http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=CO2andcars
to take part in the consultation.
Review of EU Transport White Paper
Currently a review is happening of the 2001 EU Transport White Paper which
looks set to weaken the sustainable stuff and any measures to reduce traffic
growth. The danger we face was made clear by a speech from Transport Commissioner,
Jacques Barrot, to the review conference: "Mobility cannot be restrained;
even if one wanted to, economic growth implies a growth of transport. The
road traffic of goods has to double between now and 2020, as well as air
traffic... One must break with the dogma of the decoupling of the growth
rate of transport with the growth rate of GDP".
Stop Climate Chaos - 4 Nov
More and more of us care about climate change, and we want our voices to
count. That's why on Saturday November 4, in Trafalgar Square, Stop Climate
Chaos will launch the I Count campaign. This is the start of something big,
as organisations and individuals make their voices heard in the fight against
climate change. On the eve of critical international climate change talks
in Nairobi, join thousands of people to send a message to the Prime Minister
and other world leaders that they too must stand up to stop climate chaos.
There will be activities happening around London during the day including
the Campaign against Climate Change march, which will converge on Trafalgar
Square for the main event. In the Square you’ll find music, film, special
guests and speakers…but most importantly, we need you!
See http://www.icount.org.uk/
(2) CAMPAIGN NEWS
M6 Expressway defeated! Now to stop the widening...
At last - a victory! Congratulations to the brilliant GAME campaign for succeeding in the long campaign to defeat the barmy 51 mile new tolled M6 Expressway proposal between Birmingham and Manchester. On 20 July Stephen Ladyman announced that the government were abandoning the idea of a "parallel" tolled motorway and were now instead going to investigate widening using £2.9 billion of public cash. Ladyman said that the new road would take too much land, would cost too much (£3.5 billion), and they had failed to find interest in the private sector. Although the widening will be resisted too, this is still very good news and hails the end of the era when government policy was signalling a new generation of new motorways. GAME groups from Staffordshire to Cheshire will be resisting the widening too, as it will increase traffic, increase CO2, bring more noise and pollution to residents, and still destroy the countryside. Road campaigners believe four beauty spots have been saved from the Expressway: Walton's Wood, a Site of Biological Importance (SBI); Halmerend; Craddocks Moss; and Danville's Wood.
See local press coverage and Transport 2000's press release here: http://transport2000.org.uk/news/maintainNewsArticles.asp?NewsArticleID=314
A47 Acle Straight - victory!
East of England campaigners scored a significant partial victory as ministers resisted the persistent calls from Conservative MPs and rejected dualling the A47 from Great Yarmouth which would have destroyed the Norfolk Broads National Park. A £1.6 million package of safety measures for the A47 Acle Straight was announced instead on 4 July, including resurfacing, vehicle-activated speed signs and safety cameras. On safety grounds, the casualty rate for the Acle Straight actually falls below the national rate. However, the announcement was bitter-sweet as they also announced trials to relocate deep water-filled ditches alongside the road that are currently home to otters. This amounts, campaigners say, to an implied threat of widening the route at some stage in the future. Large scale relocation would threaten otters and other protected species living in the dykes and open the door to widening at some point in the future. If widening did take place, this would encourage drivers to travel faster leading to more crashes of greater severity.
See http://transport2000.org.uk/news/maintainNewsArticles.asp?NewsArticleID=311
Titnore Lane (Sussex) - eviction alert
The protest camp at Titnore Woods has been experiencing police harassment, with the police even asking a local building supplies shop not to serve protesters. An eviction notice was granted to the Somerset family by the High Court on 27 July. However the Court has given leave for the protesters to appeal and ordered that no action should be taken to remove them for 14 days. Meanwhile barristers acting for the Worthing Society have written to Worthing Borough Council to inform them they are considering Judicial Review as the planning permission was granted using defective material presented by officers. The camp is there to protect ancient woodland from a 400 house development and road widening. To get more information on the campaign and directions to visit the camp (they will be very happy to see you!) visit http://www.protectourwoodland.co.uk/
Brunel Link / Harnham Relief Road (Salisbury) - victory!
Campaigners are delighted that the Government has decided, in its recent regional funding allocation announcement, that it will not be funding this scheme in the period to 2016. Wiltshire County Council have already spent over £1.7 million developing this scheme over the past 6 years but have now confirmed that the current planning application is being withdrawn. However it seems the council are still "in denial" and are not yet prepared to accept that this unpopular and environmentally damaging scheme is completely dead, saying for the present that "further discussions with the DfT will be necessary to consider the implications of the funding decision and until that time the current scheme will not be further developed". The Champagne is bought, but on ice...
M74 Extension (Glasgow)
Unfortunately Friends of the Earth Scotland had to withdraw their legal
challenge to the M74 midway through the hearing, after legal advice when
the judges indicated they were not sympathetic to the case (see RB bulletin
26 June). Although it is desperately sad, FoE Scotland did not want to set
a bad legal precedent that could extend the powers of the Scottish Executive.
FoE Scotland were challenging the right of the Scottish Executive to over
turn an independent inquiry inspector without good reason, after he had
ruled the road was a total disaster economically and environmentally. Local
group JAM74 are still fighting the scheme.
See http://www.foe-scotland.org.uk/about/m74_diary.html
and http://jam74.org/
Heysham to M6 Link (Lancaster) - no decision
The DfT did not make an announcement on the fate of this scheme when it
announced the Regional Funding Allocations (RFA) on 6 July. Instead confusion
was caused by including the Heysham M6 Link in the category of "schemes
which do not yet have approval". The local pro road lobby then claimed
that funding was in the bag, whereas the DfT was clear that the scheme had
not even achieved programme entry, and no funding was granted. Meanwhile,
Lancashire County Council (LCC) published a revised planning application
for the unpopular road. They appear to have laboured hard for 6 months to
achieve very little. Changes are minimal. They have not resolved the many
concerns raised, or often even addressed them. Statutory objector the Environment
Agency still objects, over the design of the River Lune bridge, as do Sport
England and the local sporting College which will lose 1.3 hectares of playing
fields. Over 600 local people objected but the council admitted it hadn't
even read the objections! GONW have issued a "direction not to determine",
and surely the Government must "call in" the controversial scheme
for an independent public inquiry.
See www.HeyshamM6Link.info
A628/A57 Mottram to Tintwistle Bypass (Peak District National Park)
Good news as the government accepted the region's advice that this was a low-down regional priority and scheduled the road for a 2012 start, which is rather different to the 2007/8 start predicted just six months ago. However this hasn't stopped the Highways Agency from rumbling on, although the public inquiry is now delayed until "next year". The HA have also now accepted that they cannot refuse objection letters, and they must all be handed into the inquiry. Almost everyone bar a few households along the route of the existing road is objecting to the road, and supporting sustainable alternatives. Since the traffic data for the road was published people have woken up to the fact that the road will draw traffic from the M62 onto the A628 through the National Park, leading to increased pollution and CO2. Objections now range from the Park Authority, National Trust, all the surrounding local authorities, CPRE, and over 1400 local objectors. Campaigners want a "win-win" lorry ban, which will restrict the lorries to the motorway around the Park, and will keep the glorious countryside. Carillion (ex-Tarmac) are the contractor in charge of this scheme after inheriting in a take-over of Mowlem. Carillion were heavily embarrassed in the 1990s after trashing Twyford Down. They may want to back out of this environmental disaster as soon as they can. See http://www.saveswallowswood.org.uk/ for info on how to object to the scheme.
Newbury Bypass snail extinct
Very sad news indeed as Buglife, the Invertebrate Conservation Trust, discovered that the ultra-rare Desmoulin's whorl snail which infamously stopped work on the Newbury Bypass in 1996 has died out in the new home created for it after a High Court challenge failed. Road Block said that this showed that mitigation for road schemes often fails. Although there is loads of legislation to "protect" endangered species, roadbuilders can often get around it by promising to move protected species to new homes. Are we fooling ourselves that we can imitate nature? Join calls for the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) to conduct an inquiry into whether mitigation actually works by emailing the committee here:
Norwich Northern Distributor Road (Norfolk)
The No N25 Campaign is pleased to report that not only did the East of
England Plan inquiry report place traffic reduction and action on climate
change at it heart (see RB bulletin 26 June 06), it also recommended that
the proposed Norwich Northern Distributor Road and other lists of road schemes
be dropped from the Plan. A key reason was lack of sufficient consultation,
raised at the inquiry by campaign groups. This is really tremendous news,
being a real blow to Norfolk County Council's chances of building the road.
The Examination Panel's recommendations still have to be approved by the
Secretary of State, but we have some cause for optimism about this as it's
been clear for some time that the Government's own Office for the East of
England are highly sceptical about the road. Norfolk County Council are
now considering applying for Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credits for
the £100 million scheme, by tagging some road maintenance onto the
application.
See http://www.norwichn25.org/
and http://transport2000.org.uk/news/maintainNewsArticles.asp?NewsArticleID=309
A80 upgrade, Kelvin Valley (Scotland) - victory!
On 4th July the Scottish Executive finally ditched proposals for an M80 motorway through the Kelvin Valley. The scheme was strongly resisted in the 1990s by CARE80, a local based coalition. Instead, the Executive have decided to proceed with an up grade of the existing road. Colin Howden, Director of TRANSform Scotland, welcomed the decision to drop the proposal but noted that there was further work to be done on promised public transport and traffic management improvements along the same transport corridor. There has also been no progress in delivering demand management measures, such as road pricing, ramp metering or high-occupancy vehicle lanes to stop congestion re-appearing on the new road. TransFORM Scotland will be watching to see what action the Executive is now prepared to take to ensure that these more sustainable parts of the promised package are finally delivered. See http://www.transformscotland.org.uk/info/news/2006/2006-07-04.html
A391 St Austell Link Road (Cornwall) - victory?
The euphoria that local group PAAL (People Against A391 Link) experienced on learning that the government had agreed with the South West region that the road was not a funding priority up to 2016 has evaporated slightly. Cornwall County Council are using the news that a local china clay development is to lay off 800 workers as a lever to appeal for funding for the road which they maintain will regenerate St Austell. PAAL remain positive and are continuing the campaign.
M54 - Roads for cash
On 24 May Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander announced the go-ahead for a new feeder road funnelling traffic onto the privately run M6 Toll Road. The new £112 million road will be funded by the same company that profits from the M6 Toll - Macquarie - making this the first public road to be built to increase profits for a private company. The new feeder road will not be tolled like the M6 Toll.
South Bristol Ring Road
A public walk and cycle ride of the three sections of the SBRR is planned for Sunday 24 Sept, co-ordinated by Bristol FOE with the routes organised by the Ramblers and Bristol Cycling Campaign. The aim is familiarise people with where the road will actually go. The WS Atkins study for the Government Office South West (Greater Bristol Strategic Transport Study) was a work of utter fantasy as it proposed £1.1 billion of new roadbuilding for the sub-region, including the South Bristol scheme, but also the enormously destructive A36/A46 Link across the Batheaston watermeadows.
A3 Hindhead
The government announced that they agreed with the findings of the Inspector's report, and were 'minded to' approve the scheme, subject to a 'limited consultation' on a massive cost increase. The road scheme was first approved in 2001 at a cost of £106 million. In May 2006 Roads Minister Stephen Ladyman admitted the road now cost £239 million. By 20 July this year it had gone up to £370.9 million, an increase of 247%. This will mean that the road will swallow up a greater share of the South East's Regional Funding Allocation budget and could mean other schemes being dropped to pay for it.
High Low Newton Bypass (Lake District)
Rare pipistrelle bats have been discovered in Black Beck Hall, an early 18th century building being demolished for the £35.3 million road. The Highways Agency are moving them (see Newbury mitigation failure story above). http://www.highways.gov.uk/news/newsroom.aspx?newsid=17358955
No Widening M1 (Sheffield)
No Widening M1 Sheffield attended the Highways Agency's Public Information events holding a well attended positive demo, with placards, banners and a selection of roads related tunes played on a sound system. The Highways Agency had computer generated images of what the motorway would look like. This was silent, but fortunately, this was corrected when someone played motorway noise (and it took a while for the assembled engineers to figure out how to turn it of again...). We've also been leafleting the houses closest to the motorway. See http://www.nowideningm1.org.uk/
STOP Harlow North (Herts)
The Panel report into the draft East of England plan also recommended that
the Harlow North development be removed from the draft plan, along with
the plans for a northern Harlow bypass. The Panel report has to be approved
by the government in the Autumn.
Weymouth Relief Road (Dorset)
The planning application has been delayed again and is now not due to be
heard until "the Autumn". The Countryside Agency are objecting
after hearing evidence from Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) that the
road will not work and will increase congestion into Weymouth, and is therefore
not a justified development in the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
This has not stopped Jim Knight, Weymouth MP, from lying to constituents
that the road will solve congestion, is not very environmentally damaging,
that the Countryside Agency objections aren't that serious, that the road
scheme has been "fully approved", and that the road is needed
for the Olympics (see RB bulletin 18 April 06). Meanwhile the scheme is
running into difficulties as the cost has gone up from £54 million
in Dec 04 to £77 million today (a 41% increase).
No decisions on the following roads...
The DfT did not make any decisions on the cost increase of the A127/A1159 Priory Crescent scheme in Southend Essex, or reject or approve the Brownhills Eastern Bypass, or the Stockport Bypass (SEMMS road).
A huge camp for action around climate change is being planned for the North of England from 26 Aug to 4 Sept. See http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/
Stop Climate Chaos mass event on 4 November in central London. 4 Nov. See http://www.icount.org.uk/
(4) TAKE ACTION - See http://www.roadblock.org.uk/action.htm
Object to the M1 widening by emailing Transport Minister, Douglas Alexander, with a standard letter directly from here:
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/local_groups_and_campaigns/press_for_change/m1_widening/index.html
Object to the Mottram Tintwistle Bypass by sending a standard letter from http://www.saveswallowswood.org.uk/lineorders.shtml
Object to the Heysham M6 Link (Lancaster) Planning Application - http://heyshamm6link.info/html/archive.html#object
Ask for an Environmental Audit Committee inquiry into mitigation - see
Newbury article above and email
Road Block
020 7729 6973 / 07854 693067
www.roadblock.org.uk