National Highways are holding a statutory consultation for the M60 Junction 18 Simister Island Interchange in Greater Manchester, ending on 28 March 2023.

Simister Island Interchange is one of the busiest motorway junctions in the north-west used by around 90,000 vehicles each day. It is already within Noise Important Areas (NIA) and Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA). However, instead of dealing with the severe air and noise pollution faced by local people, National Highways are proposing to make it even worse by increasing traffic growth by adding additional lanes to the M60 and M66.

The scheme also passes through Green Belt and would increase traffic, carbon, and noise pollution for communities already suffering alongside the existing road, and would not lead to a decrease in air pollution.

Please respond by emailing M60J18SimisterIslandInterchange@nationalhighways.co.uk before 11.59pm on 28 March 2023.

The full documents for the statutory consultation are here, but in your response you could raise any of the following issues:

• The scheme would increase traffic and carbon emissions when the UK needs to rapidly decarbonise transport. This undermines our ability to reach net zero and our Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement.
• Only roadbuilding options have been considered, and National Highways should examine ways to relieve congestion and reduce traffic in this region.
• There is a lot of information missing from the Preliminary Environmental Information Report (PEIR) including the carbon emissions caused by the construction of the scheme, and the total additional carbon emissions over its lifetime caused by the extra traffic.
• The scheme would not lead to a decrease in noise and air pollution, but would instead increase noise for the residents who already live alongside the existing road. The failure to reduce air pollution undermines Greater Manchester’s aspiration targets for lower pollution by 2030.
• There would be a particularly severe increase in noise during the construction of the scheme.
• Other information missing from the PEIR is on the impact on the Green Belt, despite the majority of the scheme lying within it. However National Highways has deferred assessment of this until its full DCO planning application.
• National Highways have also failed to include an assessment of the road accidents.