Join the zombie roads revolution

Stephen Joseph

22 October 2012

This is a guest blog by Stephen Joseph, Executive Director of the Campaign for Better Transport. Stephen thinks that misguided plans for new road building will only succeed in reviving the campaigns against them. 

Einstein suggested that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. The Government's latest attempt to revive massive new road building would certainly fall into that category.

The last time the Government planned to tarmac over the country was in the 1990s. Like then, Campaign for Better Transport will support and help coordinate those who want to both protect their local area and who can see a better way.

As little as a year ago, it seemed like road building was out of fashion. But, as a result of lobbying from business, last year's Autumn Statement starting the ball rolling on a road building programme that now looks set to be worth tens of billions.

By researching local authority plans and the National Infrastructure Plan we've identified nearly 200 major road projects and, with cost estimates for only half of the roads available, a combined budget that's already more than £18 bn. Many more look set to be announced. We are monitoring this threat through an interactive map on our website which aims to alert campaigners as early as possible to projects in their areas.

Experience shows that if built, these roads will be both hugely expensive and counterproductive. In the most basic terms, they will not tackle congestion, but instead create more traffic as the additional road space is quickly clogged up. They will worsen transport's contribution to climate change and the impact this is having on weather, ecosystems and agriculture. They will diminish the local environment in both their construction and their use. And they will create sprawling out-of-town developments that suck the economic soul out of our town centres, and impact on public health both in the air we breathe and in our reliance on the car.

Folly on such a scale will also generate a backlash. Last month, on the 20th Anniversary of the huge protests at Twyford Down against the extension of the M3, we gathered veterans of the successful 1990s anti-road building movement together with campaigners against the new plans, with a huge banner carrying the message 'Don't go backwards'.

On the same day, campaigners opposed to the Bexhill to Hastings Link Road held a rally against a scheme which will blight the tranquil and unspoilt Combe Haven. With the help of campaigners across the country, we're aiming to defeat new road building plans, just as the 1990s programme was eventually stopped.

We are ready to support local groups who want to do that - starting with a free training conference for activists in Birmingham on Saturday 3rd November. The conference will include workshops on promoting alternatives and stopping roads taking precious funds away from public transport and active travel, as well as briefings on changes to planning rules and the implications of localism for transport.

Two groups who will be attending our conference are the successful Witney First campaign, who stopped an unnecessary road in David Cameron's own constituency, and the very active A556 Lobby Group, who are working to stop a huge bypass in George Osborne's constituency in Cheshire.

Going back to a large programme of road building would be a massive step backwards for the government. Local branches of organisations like Campaign for Better Transport, Friends of the Earth and Campaign to Protect Rural England are already active against road plans around the country.

We hope that even more people will get involved soon, using the information and advice we can provide and being inspired by other campaigns, too. With inspiration, evidence and experience on our side, we know we can defeat a misguided return to road building.