[ad_1]
A £ 27bn expansion of England’s road network has come into question after documents showed Transport Secretary Grant Shapps overruled official advice to review the policy on environmental grounds, The Guardian.
It has been a legal requirement to consider the environmental impact of such projects since 2014. Shapps appears to have moved on despite advice from officials in his own department.
The details are set out in court documents that are part of a legal challenge to the policy, which was described by Chancellor Rishi Sunak last March as the “largest” highway construction program in the country.
Lawyers for the campaign group Transport Action Network (TAN) have requested a judicial review of the strategy to develop highway projects across the country, including the Stonehenge Tunnel, Newark’s A46 Bypass and the Lower Thames crossing.
According to high court documents accessed by The Guardian, evidence that Shapps had decided to override Whitehall’s advice to revise the 2014 National Policy Statement on National Networks (NPS) was revealed at 11 a.m. the plaintiffs.
The complaint centers on the decision not to review all or part of the NPS, and has since been amended to introduce Shapps’ decision to go against the advice of public administration, along with the original reasons that the construction policy of roads was inconsistent with environmental and air quality commitments. .
David Wolfe QC’s communication reads: “The day before the statute of limitations for issuing this challenge expired, the defendant provided the plaintiff with the advice of his officials, which was appropriate to review the NPS.”
It later adds: “The plaintiffs have been presented, on the one hand, with official reasoning in support of a review, and on the other, a decision by the defendant not to review the NPS, without explanation of why, or on the basis of of what information or considerations, he decided to depart from the advice of his officials “.
Government attorneys argue that the secretary of transportation is under no obligation to give reasons for his decision and contend that the claim is unfounded. However, they said that Shapps had considered that although there had been since 2014 “relevant changes in the circumstances [from] road traffic and congestion forecasts … the UK legislating for a “net zero” target by 2050; the Paris agreement; and the understanding and law of air quality, the policy “would not have been materially different if the changes had been anticipated.”
The government first announced a £ 15bn road construction program on the back of the 2014 NPS. While ministers have committed to new targets on decarbonisation, plans for new roads have not waned – in budget Last year, Sunak upped the ante to announce a five-year plan for the “largest investment ever made in strategic roads and highways: more than £ 27 billion asphalt”, on 4,000 miles of roads.
The government argues that new roads are needed to combat congestion, and that the modal shift to walking and cycling cannot replace most longer trips and the transportation of goods or cargo. Although the NPS addresses environmental impacts, TAN’s attorneys argue that subsequent major changes in climate policy and scientific understanding of pollution mean that it needs review.
The targets set by the Committee on Climate Change and accepted by the government in December call for accelerated reduction of greenhouse gases by 2030. Meanwhile, a significant element of air pollution has been identified as tire particles, which are they would aggravate with increased traffic even with a transition to electric fleets.
An overhaul could paralyze the road construction program and give new impetus to challenges to individual schemes. Last year, environmental activists temporarily achieved a legal challenge similar to the national aviation policy statement, allowing a third runway at Heathrow. It was declared illegal in February 2020 for failing to take into account climate commitments under the Paris agreements. However, a new appeal from Heathrow overturned the supreme court’s verdict in December.
Chris Todd, director of the Transport Action Network, said: “The largest highway program in history and the world’s leading emissions cuts were always the strangest of bedfellows.
“Far from ‘rebuilding better’, the government’s £ 27bn road plan would pollute communities, traverse precious green spaces and increase the planet’s temperature, while worsening congestion. Our legal challenge seeks to end this nightmare and prioritize what is important to people. ”
However, the government has already stated its determination to go ahead with major highway construction projects despite opposition and the environmental cost.
Shapps has overruled planning inspectors three times since the start of the coronavirus pandemic to approve projects including the widening of the A63 in Hull, the controversial tunnel under Stonehenge and a new duplication of the A303 in Somerset.
The Transportation Department maintains that its spending plans will improve rather than simply expand the highway network and, combined with vehicle decarbonization and greener construction, are consistent with the government’s net zero aspirations.
A DfT spokesperson said: “The department cannot comment on the ongoing legal proceedings.”
