Blog ARCHIVE
Road plans to wipe out e-car savings
Sometimes when you take a hard decision, it’s only later you’re sure you did the right thing. Today was one such moment when we read a new study that rubbishes the Government’s claim that new roads have little impact on climate change. The study calculates 80% of the carbon savings...
A shot across the bows?
The Government was supposed to file its response to our legal challenge against its huge roads programme this week. Instead we’re still waiting. In its annual report to Parliament, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) called on ministers to “seize the opportunity” from COVID to tackle accelerating climate change. Surely...
New report urges Silvertown Tunnel rethink
A new report: The Silvertown Tunnel is in a hole, so STOP DIGGING, published today, calls for the £1.2 billion Silvertown Tunnel project to be cancelled. It claims it is incompatible with the Greater London Authority’s vision to be carbon neutral by 2030. The report shows that the tunnel project...
Top climate scientist warns against more roads
As carbon emissions took a sudden turn for the worst this week, as lockdowns across the globe were eased, a top climate scientist has warned that building more roads “would be very detrimental”. Corrine Le Quere, is a professor of climate change at the University of East Anglia and a...
Department’s addiction to road-building challenged
After much preparation, and with substantial public backing, our lawyers have started proceedings against the Department for Transport’s £27bn Road Investment Strategy 2 (RIS2). Described by the Chancellor at its launch in March as England’s “largest ever” road-building programme, it breaches climate change and air quality laws. The historic case,...
Drive as much as you want to!
Across our cities roads are being closed while new cycle lanes and wider pavements pop up, promising to reset our relationship with cars. By contrast ministers have just started encouraging the public to “drive as much as you want to” to visit the countryside. So it was no big surprise...
A good start but a way to go yet
We’re absolutely thrilled that within 7 days of launching the crowdfunder for our legal challenge we had raised over £25,000 with 750 people donating. A huge thank you to everyone who has spread the word, donated, and shared the link to the Crowd Justice appeal. However, we need to raise a...
And we’ve launched!
Thank you SO much to you all for your donations. Each and every one has brought us closer to our target. In fact thanks to your amazing generosity, by the end of our first day (by happy coincidence the 50th Earth Day) we raised a THIRD of our initial costs....
Campaigners start legal challenge to “largest ever” roads plan
Campaigners start legal challenge to “largest ever” roads plan Lawyers acting for Transport Action Network (TAN) have asked the Department for Transport (DfT) and Highways England to scrap their roads plan or face a court challenge [1]. At its launch alongside the Budget, Road Investment Strategy 2 (RIS2) was described...
New roads accelerating climate change
After the delay to the National Infrastructure Strategy (NIS) it was logical to conclude that it wouldn’t make sense to press ahead with a massive road building announcement until after the NIS was published. After all, would you order a carpet before you had designed the house? That’s why, and...
The road to tackling climate change
The Court of Appeal decision on Heathrow exposed that aviation national planning policy is not fit for purpose to tackle rising carbon emissions from transport. However, the same is true of the National Networks National Policy Statement (NNNPS) which is the over-arching planning policy framework for the development of nationally...
Forgive us our trespasses
Protests camps have been a constant feature of transport and climate campaigning since 1992 when the Dongas Tribe set up a protest camp against the M3 motorway at Twyford Down in the South Downs. In 1993, at the M11 protest in London, the courts agreed with protesters that a tree...
Success in Hereford and Ipswich!
Congratulations to local campaigners in Hereford and Ipswich as two road schemes look increasingly unlikely to go ahead. The South Wye Transport Package, which included funding for the Southern Link Road and the Hereford Western Bypass has just had £27 million of funding removed by Marches Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP)...
Un-SMART Motorways
Serious safety concerns have been raised about the roll out of All Lane Running (ALR) and Smart Motorways where the hard shoulder is sacrificed to become a permanent live lane. There were 10 fatalities in 2019 including five fatalities in just 10 months on a 16-mile section of the M1...
Time to cull ‘sacred cow’ road schemes
The new government, with its desire to increase infrastructure spending whilst needing to impress new Conservative voters in the north and midlands, has the opportunity to cull some bloated vanity projects. Boris Johnson has reportedly instructed his Cabinet to cull large 'legacy projects' and told them that everything is on...
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