Birmingham Friends of the Earth West Midlands Transport Campaign

The Alliance Against the Birmingham Northern Relief Road (BNRR), a coalition of Middle England residents, returns to the High Court on February 22 to launch a major appeal to challenge the biggest new motorway proposal in the country, which the Labour Government gave the go-ahead to in its first major U-turn after coming to power, and which is now being promoted by one of Peter Mandelson's ex-employees for the PR company, Ludgate Communications.

Court Case

On 1 May 1998 the Alliance Against the BNRR began its legal challenge to the Birmingham Northern Relief Road (BNRR) Britain's largest new motorway. The Alliance is fighting John Prescott's decision to give the go ahead for the motorway despite promises in opposition that Labour would never build the toll road.

On the basis of material they have seen they believe the secret concession agreement signed between the Conservatives administration and the private contractor in 1991 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 has mounted a 'quashing order' to have the motorway stopped. They believe they have strong legal grounds, for challenging the private toll road. Although they initially lost this case at the High Court, the judge's ruling includes strong criticism of the Government which opens the way for an appeal. He said the Government should have released the Concession Agreement at the Public Inquiry. He also said it was hard for protesters to prove they were prejudiced by lack of the documents when they were kept secret. Lastly he agreed that had John Prescott taken into account financial clauses in the concession (something suggested by Mr Prescott in letters to local MPs) that would have been illegal. The Appeal will be heard on 22 February 1999.

In parallel the Alliance is also challenging the government refusal to release the concession agreement under the 1992 Environmental Information Regulations. They say the government's excuse of commercial confidentiality is actually commercial embarrassment. This challenge has implications for all residents affected by large private/public contracts where secret contracts can be used to undermine democratic accountability and consultation processes.

Parliamentary Questions have already revealed that the Concession Agreement includes secret information such as a secret subsidy of £20 million to Midland Expressway Limited, the company with the concession to build the road.

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 thousands of pounds 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 would not only cause huge damage to local communities and the environment but will not achieve its transport and economic objectives. Instead, the BNRR would 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 reduce vehicle congestion will a healthy long term future be assured for its residents, businesses and wildlife.

Background

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 Kværner and Autostrade) 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 Borough Council and Warwickshire County Council, and by MPs 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 been served, subject to the legal case, which would allow Midland Expressway to take people's homes and land.

In 1993 a press statement from Frank Dobson, then Labour's 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 £30 million promoting and planning the road, however, they have not succeeded in raising any finance to build the road and will not be able to approach 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 £650 million, especially given the uncertain response to what would be a unique and expensive toll route in Britain.

Environmental Impact

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 and would damage 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.

Traffic Impact

BNRR would be 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 green field development.

BNRR would also 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 M6 following BNRRs 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 onto 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.

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 £415 million.

Economic Impact

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 industrial 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 drivers overall are losing out and it is not value for money.

What Midland Expressway are Doing

Since receiving permission from the Government to build the motorway, Midland Expressway have done very little to progress it. We understand, they are unable to approach the city to borrow the money until the Court Cases are settled. Letters from financial institutions have confirmed this situation.

Furthermore, the financial losses on the Channel Tunnel and the financial failure of other toll roads, most importantly the Dulles Greenway in Washington, Virginia, which is being promoted by Autostrade, MELs own management company, have made it uncertain that they will find backers.

In the case of the Dulles Greenway, which used similar predictions to BNRR, the cost of construction doubled while only a third of the predicted traffic materialised despite heavy congestion on roads nearby. A similar situation on BNRR would almost certainly mean the road was a financial loss maker.

However, Midland Expressway, which comprises three people at present, have employed Ludgate Communications (also acting for the rejected Dome roof builders) to try and sell the motorway. Richard Ellens, who used to work for Peter Mandelson's Communications Department on identifying local Tory weaknesses before the election, is known to be helping the company. Ludgate have produced a press sheet: 'Eight Reasons why BNRR should be built' aping Friends of the Earth's long running briefing 'Six Reasons why BNRR should not be built'.

Nor are Midland Expressway Limited's close connections to Government new. Lord Parkinson who made key decisions in the granting of the concession to MEL then became their Chairman, only resigning months before the Conservatives lost the 1997 General Election.

On site there has been no work by MEL. Protesters at two sites, Greenwood and Moneymore Cottages, were evicted, however, these actions were funded by the Department of Transport, Environment and the Regions, who has responsibility under the concession agreement for the removal of third parties because they retain ownership of the land although it is leased to MEL over the period of the Concession. Further evictions, if they happen, would be on a similar basis.

Whats Happening on the 22nd February?

Representatives from the Alliance and its supporters will be attending the hearing at the High Court in the Strand. The hearing begins at 10.30 am and the case is expected to take three days. The Alliance will be travelling down to London by coach and will hold a small protest outside the High Court. There will be a photo call at 10.00 a.m. including leading MPs and Environmentalists campaigning against the BNRR. 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.

Press Contact

Charles Bradshaw-Smith, Chair Alliance Against BNRR:
0836 647585 (day) 01543 473717 (eve)
Richard Stein (Alliance's Solicitor), Leigh, Day & Co: 0171 650 1200

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 and would like the motorway halted.

Press Contact

Gerald Kells, FOE WMTC: 01922 636601
Neil Verlander, Friends of the Earth Press Office: 0171 566 1649