The Alliance Against the Birmingham Northern Relief Road and West Midlands Friends of the Earth will put pressure on those banks, including Lloyds, Abbey National, Royal Bank of Scotland and the Halifax, who have this month declared an interest in the environmentally disastrous Birmingham Northern Relief Road, which would destroy 27 miles of the West Midland's green belt without significantly reducing congestion on any major motorway in the region.

At a meeting on 2 February the Alliance agreed a strategy to encourage savers, investors and shareholders in the British Banks to put pressure on the financiers to back out of the project.

At the same time the Alliance will be endeavouring to meet with all the banks to make sure they are aware of all the issues involved, including some of the difficulties identified during the Public Inquiry which Midland Expressway Limited may have to face.

Hazel Barnes of the Alliance Against the BNRR said:

High Street Banks taking on this motorway need to know that their name will be associated with the most environmentally damaging road project since the controversial Newbury bypass, and ask themselves whether this is how they want to start the New Millennium.

Gerald Kells of West Midlands FOE said:

The BNRR is not only environmentally damaging, it carries huge financial risks.   Solo Toll Road are notorious for losing money.   The BNRR was originally planned as part of network of tolled roads.   On its own, parallel to A-roads which are uncongested for most of the day, it is likely to have difficulty recouping its costs.

Notes

The Birmingham Northern Relief Road is a three lane 27 mile toll motorway proposed to run from Coleshill in Warwickshire on the M42 to Cannock in Staffordshire on the M6.   It is the largest new road proposal in the country and would cost approximately £700 million to build as a toll motorway.   Midland Expressway Limited, a consortium of Maqueries (Australian Banking Group) and Autostrade (Italian toll operators), would build the motorway and have a 53 year concession to charge tolls.   It is all in designated Green Belt and it damages two Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) Blythe Valley and Chasewater Heath, in the later case where the rally is taking place, the damage is described by the Highway Agency as severe.

Midland Expressway have said they would charge £2.50 for cars and £5.00 for lorries at current prices.   According to the figures put before the Public Inquiry by Midland Expressway Limited and the Highway Agency, the M6 through Birmingham will carry approximately 160,000 vehicles per day by 2011 irrespective of whether BNRR is built, but the section of the M6 through Staffordshire would rise by 40% if BNRR were built.   Traffic levels on the M42 and M6 south would rise by smaller amounts as they became feeder roads to the motorway.

The banks who have shown an interest in the motorway are in three consortiums:

1. Royal Bank of Scotland, Halifax and Dai Ichi Kangyo Bank.

2. Abbey National and Bank of America.

3. Lloyds, West LB and ABN-Amro.

Press Contacts

Alliance:	Hazel Barnes	01543  672244
FOE:		Gerald Kells	01922  636601
		Chris Crean	0121  643  9117