A huge thanks to everyone who contributed to this challenge to try and stop one of the biggest carbon emitting  schemes in the roads programme (RIS2). Unfortunately, we were not given permission for judicial review of the approval decision, despite it being such a significant scheme and the Government being short on its target to cut emissions by 2030. The misapplication of the environmental mitigation hierarchy was also not properly addressed.

Had the A428 been approved now, after the Government has been forced to release key data about the Transport Decarbonisation Plan and has admitted it will not meet its Paris Agreement target of a 68% cut in emissions by 2030, it's likely our challenge would have succeeded. It is inconceivable that the Government didn't know these facts at the time they approved the A428, over a year after the publication of the Transport Decarbonisation Plan. In this context, building new roads, which increase carbon emissions, is inherently irrational. Yet we were not allowed to make these arguments. 

Equally, it's been a principle for years that we should try to avoid harming nature before trying to offset its loss, yet this didn't happen here. With extreme weather setting ever more records as every year goes by, this principle is more important than ever. Especially, given National Highways’ success rate with new planting: just down the road over half a million trees, planted as compensation for the A14, have died.

Hedgerows take at least 40 years before they become valuable for nature and for there to be a range of species colonising them (e.g. there needs to be a mixture of younger, middle aged and decaying wood for the full range of fungi, insects, etc.). The idea that Biodiversity Net Gain is a solution, or means that developers don't have to try and avoid damage in the first place, is a deeply worrying interpretation by the DfT.

We are not giving up, and have in fact just launched a new legal challenge against the Government slashing funding for walking and cycling.

We are also continuing our fight to stop damaging new roads and will be stepping it up during the latest consultation on the next roads programme for 2025-30 (RIS3) which runs until 13 July (check our website for more info). Our success in supporting local groups can be seen by the delays to many road schemes (not all down to soaring costs). Two, in particular, the A27 Arundel Bypass and A5036 Port of Liverpool Access Road have been pushed back into the next roads programme RIS3 because of local opposition. Both “face a range of challenges including environmental considerations and ongoing scope and design changes to ensure stakeholders’ views are fully considered”. Plus the A303 Stonehenge scheme has already been significantly delayed.

To find out more about our work you can sign up to our monthly newsletter or visit our website.

It’s been a while but we have finally got a date for our permission hearing! We’ll be at the High Court on 30 March (no time as yet) to argue our case for a full hearing later this year.

The timing could not be more apt, with the UK Government having to respond to the shortfall in its Net-Zero Strategy by the end of March and the revelations around the Transport Decarbonisation Plans showing it to be woefully inadequate. At the same time the Government is due to consult on its next roads programme (RIS3) which will run from 2023 – 2030 and future national roads policy. Both these consultations are already many months late, highlighting the mess the Government is in on decarbonisation.

In contrast, the Welsh Government has announced it will only proceed with road building where it supports modal shift and reduces carbon emissions. Scotland also has a traffic reduction target leaving England somewhat isolated.

The House of Commons Transport Committee is also holding an inquiry into strategic road investment. We appeared on 1 March to give oral evidence – a coup for a small organisation such as ours - probably because we are doing the most, of all environmental organisations, on challenging road building. You can see our appearance here (from around 10:44am onwards).

We along with others are continuing to challenge road building in a bid to make the Government see sense. We are incredibly grateful for all the support we’ve received to date. Hopefully, we will succeed in the end.

Last week, the judge who is looking at our case called for us and the defence (the Department for Transport) to update our submissions to the court. This arose after the DfT changed its story in its response to our initial submissions.

We were expecting to hear whether we had got permission by now, but this delay means that we will either hear just before Christmas, or will have to wait until the New Year.

One thing is certain though. With the Government doubling down on wanting to build new roads, regardless of whether they make any economic sense or the damage that they do, there has never been a more important time to challenge them. That’s why the Government’s hypocrisy in approving high carbon infrastructure, such as new roads, while saying it is committed to tackling climate change needs exposing and stopping.

At the same time, legislation is progressing through Parliament that will potentially strip away many of our environmental protections that originated from Europe. These are deeply worrying times and that’s why this challenge is more important than ever.