PRESS RELEASE

Statement on A66 Northern Trans Pennine Legal Challenge

Transport Action Network (TAN) has launched a legal challenge to the granting of a Development Consent Order (DCO) for the £1.5 billion A66 Northern Trans-Pennine road scheme. It believes that the Secretary of State’s decision was flawed.

Chris Todd, TAN’s founder and director, said:

“The £1.5 billion A66 Northern Trans-Pennine represents very poor value for money and will cause great harm to important landscapes and wildlife. At a time when we are experiencing more flooding due to climate change, it will drive up carbon emissions by 2.7 million tonnes. By encouraging more HGVs it will also make the existing parts of the A66 that are already dualled more dangerous.

“We believe the Secretary of State has not considered these issues properly, gambling away £1.5bn of taxpayers’ money in the process. National Highways should instead be implementing cheaper and quicker safety measures on this road, for a fraction of the cost and without harming the environment or taking us backwards on climate.”

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Notes to Editors:

More detail about the A66 can be found here.

More details on TAN’s legal challenge can be found here.