A year of two halves…

The start of 2024 was surrounded in a cloud of uncertainty, but also anticipation of a General Election. Would the Conservatives go early in May or hang on for as long as possible? In the end Rishi Sunak surprised everyone, including many in his own party, by holding the election in July.

So it turned out to be a year of two halves. The general feeling at the start of the year was both of a government on hold and rushing through decisions before it was kicked out of office. When that change arrived with the new Labour government, it was rapid. Louise Haigh and Rachel Reeves scrapped road schemes and hit the ground running with a review of the Department for Transport’s capital spending on major projects, new legislation on renationalising train operators, a white paper on devolution and a bus bill introduced just before Christmas.

The final months of the Conservative Government

We started 2024 with an exclusive in The Guardian, after our legal challenge uncovered policy papers showing conspiracy theories were contributing to a shift in transport policy to prioritise driving over active travel. This was quickly followed by another article in The Guardian about freedom of information requests which revealed that the Department for Transport was not scrutinising final business cases of road schemes costing under £500m. We called for greater oversight by the government into National Highways’ work to ensure it delivers value for money for taxpayers.

Decisions pushed back

In the first part of the year, the Department for Transport pushed back the announcement of the next roads programme (RIS3) until after the election. This gave us hope that a new government might take a different approach and prioritise sustainable transport and road maintenance instead of spending billions on building bigger roads that do not provide long term solutions to congestion.

Road challenges

We had a busy first half of the year supporting campaigners fighting road schemes, in and out of the courts:

• The Court of Appeal dismissed Dr Andrew Boswell’s legal challenge to the way that National Highways and the Department for Transport assess the carbon impacts of three A47 schemes in Norfolk. Sadly he was refused permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

• Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site lost their legal challenge on the A303 Stonehenge dual carriageway, but were given permission to take the case to the Court of Appeal.

• The Stop A38 Expansion campaign was in the High Court in May for the A38 Derby Junctions scheme. They argued that the Government failed to update the 2018 business case when granting approval for the scheme for the second time, in 2023.

• The Lower Thames Crossing has never been far from the headlines and has been opposed valiantly by the Thames Crossing Action Group. Following the end of the Examination, the Conservative government delayed making a decision, leaving it to the next government to decide.

• Stop the Wensum Link discovered the Norwich Western Link’s costs had rocketed to £274 million. Meanwhile, Norfolk County Council were undeterred by Natural England’s new guidance on Barbestelle bats, which effectively rules out granting the licences to disturb the UK’s largest colony of this rare bat needed to build the road.

• Campaigners from Better Shrewsbury Transport continued to oppose the Shrewsbury North West Relief road scheme. There is currently an estimated £120 million shortfall in funding.

• In Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire Roads Action Alliance continued to oppose two damaging road schemes, including the Watlington Relief Road which is opposed by the Chilterns Conservation Board.

Road scheme approvals

The Government approved the huge A12 Chelmsford scheme in Essex despite National Highways admitting it would increase carbon emissions by an extra 2 million tonnes and destroy 45 hectares of woodlands.

Disappointingly, the Department for Transport approved the £1.5bn A66 Northern Trans Pennine (effectively eight schemes in one). We have worked with local people to challenge this in the courts as it will impact on national landscapes and internationally important wildlife habitats.

A parting gift

The Conservative government published its roads policy in March, but waited until the last moment, hours before Parliament broke up for the election, before they designated it.

Future road schemes will be judged against this policy (full name: National Networks National Policy Statement (NNNPS)) which effectively rules out carbon emissions as a planning consideration. We had little choice but to challenge its adoption even though this meant filing our claim on the day of the election. We have campaigned for years for the NNNPS to be updated and were incredibly disappointed this policy was effectively left unchanged after being reviewed.

After the election

We were pleased to see a strong transport team, most of whom had been in Labour’s Shadow transport team, headed up by Louise Haigh who promised to ‘move fast and fix things’. The new government wasted no time in getting things moving, settling the rail strike and getting the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 passed. The Department for Transport ordered a capital spend review to examine large road and rail projects, and has just introduced a Bus Services Bill.

On roads, it wasted little time in scrapping two road schemes, the controversial A303 Stonehenge and A27 Arundel (second) Bypass.

However, while Labour has big ambitions to move quickly, it’s not always possible to rush things. Its promise to review national policy statements in the first six months is not going to happen, while it is having to further scrutinise the Lower Thames Crossing and delay the next roads programme (RIS3). This is a result of the state of the public finances and the need to have agreed the multi-year spending review before committing to more infrastructure spend.

In September we launched our report: Cancel new roads to boost growth. It led to great coverage in the Guardian via an opinion piece by Christian Wolmar on how scrapping the 16 biggest road schemes could save £15bn. We then published an independent expert report by Dr Colin Black into the Lower Thames Crossing which was launched in Parliament by Thurrock MP, Jen Craft. We took both of these and our banners to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, working with the fabulous local group Save Rimrose Valley.

The budget

After the optimism of the first few months, the budget was a bit of a let down. Yes there was good news on buses, an increase in active travel funding (although not the “unprecedented” levels promised), and road schemes such as the controversial A5036 Port of Liverpool Access Road being axed. However, fuel duty was frozen again, for the 13th year in a row, while public transport fares were increased. This was a real missed opportunity to encourage people to move to electric vehicles and provide funding for much needed public transport and active travel improvements. Also, there was extra money for local roads maintenance, this is still way below what is needed to address the £16bn backlog. Keir Starmer has talked about not shying away from big decisions, but Labour did just that in the budget.

Unfortunately, the A47 schemes that were challenged by Dr Andrew Boswell, and the A57 Link Road in the Peak District, challenged by CPRE – Peak District and South Yorkshire, were given the go-ahead. The A57 scheme will increase the pressure for more roadbuilding in the National Park.

TAN has more success in the courts

The year is ending with some good news on our legal challenges which could shape what the government does next on these issues:

• A66 – we are seeking permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

• Active travel funding cuts – we have been granted permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal – it is important we win to ensure that funding for active travel is more secure.

• Roads policy (NNNPS) – we have been granted permission on all grounds for our challenge to the new roads policy (effectively ignoring carbon emissions), designated by the Conservatives but defended by Labour. It is particularly worrying that Keir Starmer is promising a building boom by fast-tracking decisions on 150 major infrastructure projects and shows why this challenge is so important.

More roads

Unfortunately Stop A38 Expansion in Derby failed to persuade the Court of Appeal that the Secretary of State needs up to date information when approving new roads. The economic case for the A38 in Derby was 5 years out of date when planning permission was granted. It is not over though as National Highways still has to update the business case and get funding approval which is not a given.

Meanwhile on the £10bn Lower Thames Crossing, there have been more consultations on how National Highways could improve public transport and active travel, and minimise construction disruption. Spoiler alert: it can’t do any of these things in a meaningful way.

Save Stonehenge WHS lost in the Court of Appeal after the scheme was scrapped but has sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. The planning permission is still live (so the threat remains) while there are some important points of principle on the World Heritage Convention and how much information a Minister need to know when taking a decision that needs clarification.

A better strategy

One of the first things Labour announced was that it was going to draft a new road safety strategy, the first for 20 years and both Louise Haigh and Lilian Greenwood emphasised the importance of safety for women on transport networks.

In addition, Louise Haigh launched her vision for an Integrated National Transport Strategy at the end of November, shortly after the death of John Prescott, before having to promptly resign the next day. Despite the change with Heidi Alexander being the new Secretary of State, we hope the vision will be seen through and people across the country will finally have a better choice in how they travel.

2024: a busy year

Overall, it has been a busy year for us. We had our annual conference in March and celebrated our fifth birthday in July. We have met with officials, lobbied politicians and provided support to many people across the country. Given our size, we have punched way above our weight, but we’ve not done it alone. While we have engaged with other likeminded organisations, we could not achieve any of this without our fantastic supporters. Thousands of people have sent a letter to the Transport Secretary calling for road schemes to be scrapped using our template, and many more have rallied around to support our and others’ many legal challenges. So far, together, we have helped save nearly £4bn and 8 million tonnes of carbon from the scrapped road schemes.

It seems next year is going to be just as busy, with the spending review, a draft Road Investment Strategy (RIS3), an integrated transport strategy, a new net-zero plan and the decision on the Lower Thames Crossing to look forward to. With Keir Starmer pushing for planning and legal reforms we will need to stay vigilant that he doesn’t try to bulldoze through more roads in the name of economic development or supporting more housebuilding.

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