Campaigns and Issues:
M6 widening
The Government has been pursuing proposals to widen the M6 in Staffordshire and Cheshire (From Junction 11a to Junction 19) to four lanes.
This would have a large impact on the countryside and people already living in proximity to the motorway, and it would also lead to increased commuting, longer journeys and encourage more people to move out of our cities into the countryside contrary to our Regional Spatial Strategy.
This follows a report in 2002 (West Midlands to North West Multi-Modal Study - Midman) which recommended widening the motorway, putting a modest toll on it and investing in public transport.
However, the Government has only pursued part of that approach. So even the Government’s own consultants admit that widening on its own would not solve the problems.
The Midman report also said that widening would increase carbon dioxide emissions, adding to the impacts of Climate Change.
Moreover, the cost of widening has increased in that time from £670 million to £3 billion, making it the country’s most expensive current road proposal costing over £1,000 an inch. If the half of that money dedicated to widening the motorway in our region was diverted to public transport it could dramatically improve our bus network or provide several new metro lines which would be better for the environment and more consistent with the spatial policies we are pursuing.
And if national road pricing was introduced, the Midman analysis suggests a toll of 10p per mile on the motorway would reduce traffic enough so that widening wasn’t needed. The Government could be spending £3 billion for nothing!
So we believe this proposal should be scrapped and the money diverted to more sensible uses which improve transport, reduce climate change and supported our Spatial Strategy.
A business plan to support the widening proposals is currently being prepared by the Highway Agency. CPRE regionally and nationally is working with a group of other organisations to fund work by Phil Goodwin, an eminent transport specialist, to examine whether the business case stands up and whether it takes proper account of environmental impacts. We will be submitting his findings to Government Ministers.
This would have a large impact on the countryside and people already living in proximity to the motorway, and it would also lead to increased commuting, longer journeys and encourage more people to move out of our cities into the countryside contrary to our Regional Spatial Strategy.
This follows a report in 2002 (West Midlands to North West Multi-Modal Study - Midman) which recommended widening the motorway, putting a modest toll on it and investing in public transport.
However, the Government has only pursued part of that approach. So even the Government’s own consultants admit that widening on its own would not solve the problems.
The Midman report also said that widening would increase carbon dioxide emissions, adding to the impacts of Climate Change.
Moreover, the cost of widening has increased in that time from £670 million to £3 billion, making it the country’s most expensive current road proposal costing over £1,000 an inch. If the half of that money dedicated to widening the motorway in our region was diverted to public transport it could dramatically improve our bus network or provide several new metro lines which would be better for the environment and more consistent with the spatial policies we are pursuing.
And if national road pricing was introduced, the Midman analysis suggests a toll of 10p per mile on the motorway would reduce traffic enough so that widening wasn’t needed. The Government could be spending £3 billion for nothing!
So we believe this proposal should be scrapped and the money diverted to more sensible uses which improve transport, reduce climate change and supported our Spatial Strategy.
A business plan to support the widening proposals is currently being prepared by the Highway Agency. CPRE regionally and nationally is working with a group of other organisations to fund work by Phil Goodwin, an eminent transport specialist, to examine whether the business case stands up and whether it takes proper account of environmental impacts. We will be submitting his findings to Government Ministers.
Government has also recently announced that they will be investigating whether Active Traffic Management, including hard-shoulder running during busy times, would be a more appropriate response. While CPRE believes that ATM would be preferable to widening, it would still increase capacity on the road, whereas we believe that the Government’s first priority should be to provide and encourage viable alternatives to ever-increasing reliance on the private car.