Home > Press releases > 1995
11 Jul 1995
The Highways Agency's review of the Newbury Bypass is deeply flawed because it is based on building more roads to accommodate forecast traffic growth, instead of investigating ways to reduce or manage traffic, according to Friends of the Earth and independent transport consultants Metropolitan Transport Research Unit [1].
The review fails even to fulfil its own terms of reference, which include looking at other options to solve the traffic problems of Newbury. [2].
Friends of the Earth and experts from MTRU say that the review is full of inconsistencies and flaws, but above all, fails to ask how national and local policies for managing and restraining demand would affect the need for a Bypass. The section of the review on changes in circumstances since the public inquiry of 1988 makes no mention of changes in national policies to reduce car use and manage demand. The review makes no reference to the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution report, which clearly apply to the case of the Newbury Bypass [3].
Simon Festing, Habitats Campaigner of Friends of the Earth said:
"The so-called review' of the Newbury Bypass is little more than a charter for road-building. It has been cobbled together out of political expediency and flawed analysis. The approach is bad news for the many wildlife sites under threat from road construction across the country.
Keith Buchan of MTRU said:
"The Highways Agency has simply reviewed the choice of route, not whether a road is needed or not. It dismissed other options in just six lines, and has not even fulfilled its own terms of reference, which included full investigation of alternatives to the Bypass. The report is a world away from modern transport policy thinking."
The review also falls short on environmental grounds. There is no mention of:
The failure to carry out a full Environmental Impact Assessment of the route.
The work of the National Rivers Authority showing substantial impacts from the river crossings of the Lambourn and Kennett.
The views of English Heritage of the effects on Donnington Castle and the 1st Battle of Newbury site.
Friends of the Earth is calling for:
1. The team at the Highways Agency to be named, and what projects they have worked on before to be stated;
2. The details behind the report to be published. The report is full of assertions, but without the information to back them up;
3. The report and its findings to be opened up to cross-examination at a public inquiry.
ENDS NOTES TO EDITORS:
[1] The Newbury Bypass Study Report. Highways Agency Study Team. July 1995.
[2] The Highways Agency has not fulfilled the terms of reference of the report. These included consideration of new alternatives. But the description of work carried out shows that the Highways Agency has stuck to the original scope of the public inquiry in 1988, despite the changes in transport policy and thinking since then. The Agency describes its two main channels of work' as:
to identify and discuss the changes that have taken place since the Inspector's report, which may be considered relevant to the issues of the Bypass.
to look again at the major decisions made previously about the Bypass and to assess whether or not, in the light of the changes, they remain sound.
[3] The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution made a number of references which would apply to the Newbury Bypass case, including:
Recommendation 59: "Where a route designed for long-distance traffic is overloaded as a result of heavy local traffic, an assessment be made of the advantages of closing selected entry points, completely or at certain times of day, as an alternative to widening it or constructing relief roads."
Recommendation 96: that the Department of Transport "investigate whether some towns and villages could obtain most of the benefits of a Bypass, more cost-effectively and with less environmental damage, through traffic management measures."
Contact details:
Friends of the Earth
26-28 Underwood St.
LONDON
N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
Web: www.foe.co.uk/feedback.html
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