Avoid the road to climate breakdown!
Avoid the road to climate breakdown!
This case is raising funds for its stretch target. Your pledge will be collected within the next 24-48 hours (and it only takes two minutes to pledge!)
Latest: Dec. 11, 2024
Success! - green light for transport climate test case
Our High Court hearing went better than we dared hope for on 3 December. Despite the Department for Transport (DfT) claiming our case was “misconceived” and not arguable, the judge gave t…
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Hours before the previous Parliament broke up (May 2024), the Tories formally designated a new policy to make it even easier to bulldoze new roads through our countryside. Astonishingly, Labour has decided to back this policy. We urgently need your help to fund a legal challenge against it as we're in court on 3 December.
But hasn’t it all changed now?
Yes it has, but while Labour has cancelled a few road schemes and is promising integrated transport, it is still committed to cut back planning “to forge ahead with new roads”.
We tried our best to get it changed
We did all we could to stop this happening. We helped hundreds of people feed into the consultation responses, persuaded MPs of all parties on the Transport Select Committee to tell the Tories to think again and put net zero to the fore of a rewritten policy. We had high hopes for a change of direction. However, if we had not filed legal papers on the day of the election, within the six week deadline, this damaging new policy would be unchallengeable for years to come.
Why is this policy important?
Technically known as the National Networks National Planning Statement (NNNPS), it has a title that discourages engagement.
Yet it is a legally binding policy that ties the hands of future governments.
It creates a legal presumption in favour of road-building - on the basis that big increases in traffic are, in the minds of ministers, inevitable.
Not only does this tip the scales of justice against communities in planning, the traffic forecasts make it hard to justify investment in public transport and active travel schemes. You know, the ones that might actually give us a hope to cut motor traffic.
Carbon emissions are irrelevant
The policy deems carbon emissions irrelevant to planning decisions on transport, on the basis that the government has a credible plan in place to meet legal targets. With the High Court ruling earlier in May that it didn't, we were dismayed that the Tories in the last hours of their rule locked us into speeding towards climate breakdown.
Shock as new Government defends Tory policy
But the biggest surprise came at the end of the summer.
After asking the courts for extra time, the new Government suddenly decided to defend the Tories’ case.
Why on earth would Labour step into their shoes, or should that be driving seat, and carry on as before? So much for change.
Perhaps it's the Get Britain Building bravado. Yet for all the talk about economic growth, the evidence is clear the case for road schemes has collapsed.
There are better ways
The tragedy is we know how to get growth, how to cut pollution, how to improve social mobility. High quality public transport like trams and rapid rail would transform our cities and their prospects.
But the NNNPS fails to support light rail or require rail electrification.
The last plan for Leeds, the biggest city in western Europe without a metro system, got thrown out in 2016 due to a lack of supportive national policy.
A precedent for airport expansion?
Our fear is that if Labour can get this through then they'll do the same for flying, saying if the planning system doesn't need to block roads, it shouldn't stop runways too. With transport set to be well over a third of all carbon emissions by 2030, this would be a disaster for the climate, nature and humanity.
Who is bringing the case
Established in 2019, Transport Action Network (TAN) is a small and agile NGO that operates at both the national and grassroots level. We support local communities press for more sustainable travel and help them oppose cuts to bus and rail services as well as damaging road schemes.
We have a fantastic legal team led by David Wolfe KC, a highly ranked environmental lawyer, instructed by Leigh Day solicitors.
What next?
We now need to raise £8,000 to cover the initial costs of bringing this judicial review. This includes court fees, our own legal team and funding to cover the risk of being required to pay the DfT’s costs. We have already raised over £27,000 of our initial target of £35,000 from other sources but we need the final £8,000 to continue. If we are successful at this stage we will need to raise more funding for a full hearing.
Please help us by sharing this appeal widely, and thanks so much for reading this!
Chris and the rest of the team at TAN
PS - if we’re lucky enough to raise more than required we would use any surplus money to support local groups with their campaigning.
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I'll share on FacebookChris from Transport Action Network
Dec. 11, 2024
Success! - green light for transport climate test case
Our High Court hearing went better than we dared hope for on 3 December. Despite the Department for Transport (DfT) claiming our case was “misconceived” and not arguable, the judge gave the green light to our challenge on all our three legal grounds. Even better, she was extremely critical of the Department for Transport’s attempts to ignore consultation responses that called for a shift to sustainable travel as well as the climate impacts of road schemes.
This ruling could not have come at a better time!
With the Prime Minister promising a building boom by fast-tracking decisions on 150 major infrastructure projects, this decision will give the Government pause for thought. This new target would mean nearly tripling the number of schemes approved in the last Parliament, many of which would be roads. Thanks to this ruling, roads and climate policy will be at the top of the in-tray for the new Secretary of State for Transport, Heidi Alexander, just as a major review of spending starts.
We are now proceeding to a full hearing, expected to be for two days in the spring. So we urgently need to raise another £14,000 (making a total of £22,000) to pay for our lawyers fees for the next stage. If we win, billions [of pounds of funding] could be shifted from road-building to buses, bike lanes and better high streets, a great present for communities across the country! So please help us by sharing and supporting where you can.
Many thanks,
Chris, Nisha and all at TAN
PS If you would like to find out more about the case, we’ve produced a briefing and shared some of the legal papers on our website.
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