PRESS RELEASE :-

15 Feb 1999

Residents from the umbrella opposition group, the Alliance Against the BNRR, are going to the Appeal Court on February 22nd in a fresh challenge to the controversial Birmingham Northern Relief Road (BNRR), the proposed 27 mile private toll motorway round the West Midlands. There will be a photo call at 10.00, including Labour MPs who support their cause and leading environmental groups. The case starts at 10.30 and is anticipated to last three days.

The Alliance has already taken legal challenges against the road builders further than any other road protesters. They believe they can now stop the road because the Secretary of State acted illegally when he gave the country's only toll motorway the go-ahead in 1997 because he was influenced by cancellation charges in the Concession Agreement with Midland Expressway Limited (MEL), the consortium wanting to build the road.

At an earlier ruling in the High Court the judge fell short of stopping the road, but seriously criticised the Government for

• not disclosing the secret Concession Agreement at the Public Inquiry, thereby prejudicing opponents
• appearing to act illegally when John Prescott told MPs in a letter he had considered cancellation charges when approving the scheme last year.

And the Government has promised never again to enter into secret Concession Agreements as a result of the legal case. Protesters now believe they can finish the road for good by getting the Appeal judges to tell John Prescott to go back to the drawing board.

Charles Bradshaw Smith, chair of the Alliance Against the BNRR, said:

'We have had to take the Government to court because they failed to live up to their promises on environmental protection and sustainable transport. If we win it will be a victory for local democracy against rip-off toll merchants and against a policy of more roads for more cars.'

Gerald Kells of Friends of the Earth said:

'This road is a transport dinosaur. When the Government should be promoting public transport and targeting resources at rail, bus, walking and cycling, it is busy promoting the largest, most unsustainable new road project in the country so that a private company can profit out of creating congestion. This fiasco should be ended and BNRR dropped for good.'

The controversial toll road, which was first planned in 1988 for opening in 1996, is firmly stuck in the sidings as long a the court case continues. Midland Expressway have no money to build the motorway, and may have difficulty getting an estimated £600-700 million from the city following the high profile financial failure of other toll roads in America and abroad.

The company which had Lord Parkinson as chairman all through the Tory years despite his being involved in key decisions on BNRR beforehand, are now employing Richard Ellens of Ludgate Communications to promote their cause. He worked for Peter Mandelson's office in the run up to the election. Labour promised in opposition they would 'never build the BNRR', a policy publicly upheld by, among others, John Prescott.

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.