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BNRR Legal Briefing
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West Midlands Transport Campaign BNRR Legal Briefing |
Issued by:
On the anniversary of Labour's landslide victory at the polls, a coalition of Middle England residents goes to the High Court to challenge the government's first major U-turn after coming to power.
On 1 May the Alliance Against the BNRR begins its legal challenge to the Birmingham Northern Relief Road (BNRR) Britain's largest new motorway. The Alliance is fighting the Department of Transport's refusal to release the secret concession agreement it has signed with the private contractor who will build and levy tolls on the controversial road.
On the basis of material they have seen they believe the secret agreement contains illegal clauses that forced the Secretary of State, John Prescott, to give the controversial BNRR the go ahead last July, despite Labour's promises in opposition never to build the toll motorway.
The Alliance is challenging the government to release the documents under the 1992 Environmental Information Regulations. They say the government's excuse of commercial confidentiality is actually commercial embarrassment.
The Alliance has also mounted a 'quashing order' to have the motorway stopped. They believe they have strong legal grounds, (including the illegal concession agreement that will be disclosed as part of the first case) for challenging the private road. A date for the second case is expected once the first is concluded.
The case has implications for all residents effected by large private/public contracts where secret contracts can be used to undermine democratic accountability and consultation processes.
The Alliance Against the BNRR is a coalition of residents organisations along the route of the Birmingham Northern Relief Road whose aim is to stop the motorway being built, representing a true and diverse cross section of their communities. The Alliance has wide spread support and has so far raised ú40,000 for its legal challenge from residents, 11 councils (2 local authorities and 9 parishes) and well known environmental organisations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature.
The Alliance and its supporters believe that the BNRR will not only cause huge damage to local communities and the environment but will not achieve its transport and economic objectives. Instead, the BNRR will worsen traffic conditions in and around the Birmingham conurbation, encourage urban sprawl and damage the economy of the West Midlands. Only by adopting sustainable transport policies that reduces vehicle congestion will a healthy long term future be assured for its residents, businesses and wildlife.
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The BNRR is a proposed 27 mile, dual three lane, tolled motorway which would run from the M6 South of the West Midlands conurbation to the M6 North of the conurbation. The proposals are being promoted by the Highway Agency and Midland Expressway Limited (MEL), (a private consortium of Kvaener and Autostrada) who would build and operate the motorway for 53 years and would have complete freedom to set toll rates. It is the largest new road proposal in the current roads programme.
The BNRR was conceived in the 1980s as part of an 'M25 style' orbital motorway round Birmingham. It was to be used as the flagship for a Conservative policy of private toll motorways. All the other planned toll motorways have now been shelved and the target of opening the BNRR to traffic in 1996 has been missed because of huge opposition from local residents in the Alliance, Friends of the Earth and other environmental NGOs.
It is opposed by local authorities including Walsall MBC, North Warwickshire BC and Warwickshire CC; by MP's including Dr Tony Wright, Brian Jenkins, Lynne Jones, and Junior Home Office Minister, Mike O'Brien.
After the longest Public Inquiry for a road scheme ever, the BNRR was eventually given the go ahead in July 1997. At the time of the Inquiry 10,000 people had sent in letters of objection to the motorway, one of the highest local protests to a road ever achieved. Local residents are overwhelmingly opposed to BNRR.
Compulsory Purchase Orders have now been served, subject to the legal case, which would allow Midland Expressway to take people's homes and land. MEL say they will begin construction in early 1999, although this timetable is liable to slippage.
A protest camp and a house are currently being occupied by anti-roads protesters on the route. On 15 April a second house was bulldozed by contractors when protesters temporarily left it to allow police to carry out an investigation into the death of a tunneller within the house.
A press statement from Frank Dobson as Shadow Transport Secretary set out Labour's position on the road. Claire Short, Michael Meecher and John Prescott all opposed it. John Prescott said publicly that he did not believe BNRR would achieve its goal of reducing congestion on the M6 when he visited local party activists as Shadow Transport Secretary.
Midland Expressway are understood to have spent ú30 million promoting and planning the road, however, they have not succeeded in raising any finance to build the road and will not now be approaching the markets until the court case is completed. Following events such as the financial difficulties of London and Continental Railways it is still not certain that they will be able to raise the estimated building requirement of ú650 million, especially given the uncertain response to what would be a unique and expensive toll route in Britain.
BNRR would destroy 27 miles of Green Belt to the North and West of the West Midlands. Even without knock on development it would have a severe effect on the countryside around the conurbation would damages two nationally important nature sites, Blythe Valley and Chasewater Heath Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in the later case causing what the Highway Agency admits is 'severe' damage.
BNRR is likely to generate extra traffic, because increased Green Belt development for business, housing or leisure, would generate extra traffic and because the road would encourage extra journeys on the local network. New development sites have already been identified nearby for example at Peddimore (industry) and Chasewater (Leisure). BNRR would act as a catalyst to new greenfield development.
BNRR would fail to reduce congestion on roads in the West Midlands and specifically the M6, because car dependency in the West Midlands is rising and congestion is endemic. Time saving from new infrastructure is usually lost elsewhere, especially with orbital motorways, such as BNRR, which encourage longer journeys and lead to new traffic generation. 70% of the traffic on the West Midlands M6 (80% in peak hours) is accessing the conurbation so would not use BNRR. Of the remainder 50% of car traffic and 70% of lorries would be put off BNRR by the toll. Other non-motorway traffic, which is put off using the M6 by congestion at the moment, would transfer to the following M6 construction replacing the small amount of traffic transferring to BNRR. The M6 would then 'top-up' with traffic as local people travel further. Even the Highways Agency predict traffic flows on the M6 through the West Midlands only changing by between 1% and 4% as a result of BNRR.
At the same time BNRR would funnel traffic on the M6 north and south of the conurbation causing considerable increases in traffic levels and adding delays to long distance through traffic. This would lead to more publicly financed road widening encouraging more traffic growth - and so the congestion spiral will continue.
BNRR is at the core of the motorway network from London to Manchester, which also includes six of the largest widening proposals in the Government's current review of the roads programme. Apart from generating new traffic in Manchester, Birmingham and on the M25 the proposals have a total estimated cost of ú1.2 billion to the taxpayer.
To take one example, the Highway Agency admits the construction of the BNRR would add an extra 40% to the traffic using the M6 in Staffordshire where widening is costed by the Highway Agency at ú415 million.
BNRR would not generate new business, regionally or nationally, but would lead to the relocation of businesses away from the inner city and into the Green Belt.
If there were a relative advantage in inward investment terms it would favour peripheral Green Belt sites, such as those already identified at Basset's Pole, Sandhills and Peddimore. These would take investment away from the conurbation, especially since the M6 would remain heavily congested. The recent report from SACTRA, the Government's wise men on traffic, has highlighted the fact that new roads do not improve the economy, they just move it round, while traffic reduction brings real economic benefits.
No Cost Benefit Analysis (COBA) of the Private BNRR has ever been carried out, to quantify the economic benefit of the road, although this would be standard practice for a public road. Last year Gavin Strang in a parliamentary answer misled the House of Commons about this, but his officials have now confirmed the situation.
An unofficial Cost Benefit Analysis undertaken for World Wide Fund for Nature by an adviser to the British Government on Traffic Predictions concluded that the costs were substantially greater than the benefits, and thus the road was not in the public interest. This means that drivers overall are losing out and it is not value for money.
Representatives from the Alliance and its supporters will be attending the hearing at the High Court in the Strand. The hearing begins at 10am and the case is expected to be concluded, and a decision announced, the same day. The Alliance will be travelling down to London by coach and hold a small protest outside the High Court. A limited amount of space is available on the Alliance's coach for press.
The Alliance Against the Birmingham Northern Relief Road is a coalition of residents organisations and other interested bodies along the route of the Birmingham Northern Relief Road, whose aim is to stop the motorway being built, so that alternative more sustainable transport policies can be pursued.
At the time of the Public Inquiry 10,000 people had sent in letters of objection to the motorway, one of the highest local protests to a road ever achieved. Local residents are overwhelmingly opposed to BNRR.
Friends of the Earth West Midlands Transport Campaign is a network of local FOE groups set up to promote sustainable transport in the West Midlands. Although not pursuing Legal action against The Government they believe the Government had a democratic duty to release the concession agreement and would like the motorway halted.