Blog ARCHIVE
Network North: The Great Train Robbery
Investment in transport impacts us all, yet doesn’t often hit the political headlines. All that changed during the Conservative Party conference. However, rather than thinking about the long term, as they claim to, the Government has tried to create political divisions, scrapped HS2, and diverted money from public transport into...
Plan for drivers has little substance
The Conservatives have clearly decided to make transport the latest front in the culture wars with ‘The plan for drivers’ announced at their party conference in Manchester. Looking behind the headlines however, while there are a few genuinely new initiatives, most involve extending the scope of existing promises, not delivering...
UK’s climate action driven off course
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s much leaked speech claimed the UK will take a more ‘pragmatic’ approach to climate change and getting to net zero. Yet, his speech failed to recognise that the UK is already off course and the latest proposals will make things worse. Just six months ago, the...
Don’t declare war on public health
The news that Labour has apparently scrapped its commitment to roll out clean air zones across the country is worrying if true. According to the Royal College of Physicians, air pollution is responsible for around 40,000 premature deaths and costs the UK over £20bn every year. It has been linked...
Transport in the headlights
Hardly a week goes by without there being some momentous story involving transport. As with most things at present, evidence or rationality often plays little part in the debate. This is despite many of these issues having far reaching consequences affecting public health, inequalities and often involving vast sums of...
Government’s failings driven home
After years of (too) subtle hints about the Government’s road building programme, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has strongly recommended a Welsh-style roads review for England. Its 2023 annual progress report to parliament was pretty damning, but especially so on transport. It tore into the lie that we can decarbonise...
Why we’re challenging walking and cycling cuts
In March, ministers tried to sneak out a cut of two-thirds of England’s dedicated funding for walking, wheeling and cycling, under the headlines of a record investment in infrastructure and delays to the roads programme and HS2. This prompted a huge outcry from walking, cycling, disability and environmental organisations. They...
Creating a genuine national transport policy
Despite claiming to lead on the climate and nature emergencies, the Government wants to continue the “largest ever” road-building programme, as it boasted in 2020. As we warned in The Guardian recently this “Road-building spree will derail UK’s net zero targets”. It will also harm nature and local communities, while...
£20bn backlog as potholes grow
£14 billion and 11 years. That’s the estimated cost of fixing all the potholes in England and Wales. When combined with the arrears in bridge repairs, that’s a total maintenance backlog of £20 billion. A recent report found that almost one in five local roads in England and Wales are...
Why England urgently needs a roads reset
We gave evidence at the House of Commons’ Transport Committee’s inquiry into strategic road investment on Wednesday 1st March, talking about why England urgently needs a roads reset. The current situation National Highways and the Department for Transport (DfT) are preparing another round of funding for motorways and trunk roads...
Wales leads world on tackling transport carbon
Lee Waters, Deputy Minister for Climate Change, announced on Valentine’s Day that the Welsh Government will curtail harmful and unnecessarily expensive road schemes. This represents a landmark turning point in tackling climate change. The Welsh Government is clear that it will still build roads; just not in the traditional traffic...
Case Study: Nottingham Workplace Parking Levy
How it has reduced congestion in the city In 2012, Nottingham took the unprecedented step to introduce a Workplace Parking Levy (WPL). Covering the whole City Council administrative area, the levy was the first of its kind in Europe. A Workplace Parking Levy is a charge on employers who provide...
30 years of roads campaigning
On the 23rd January, 1993, with John Major as Prime Minister and ‘Innuendo’ by Queen at number 1 in the charts, community groups came together at the first national anti-roads conference in the UK. Organised by ALARM UK, groups opposing road schemes met in Birmingham to build opposition and support...
Why We Are Challenging the A428 Road Scheme
Transport Action Network director Chris Todd spoke with Babs Michel on BBC Three Counties Radio about the £1bn A428 road scheme and why we submitted an application to the High Court for permission for a judicial review. An extract of the interview is below. Support our campaign to stop the...
Scrap road schemes to grow the economy
Regardless of the political comings and goings in Downing Street, there is an urgent need to stabilise the economy and to fill the £40bn fiscal black hole created by Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget. As the new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has renewed his commitment to Levelling Up and to economic...
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