Countryside campaigners CPRE {1} reacted with relief to today's Government's announcement that it will not be pursuing the hugely unpopular scheme for a new M6 Expressway between Junctions 11A in South Staffordshire and 19 in North Cheshire.

But they are very disappointed that a scheme to widen this section of the M6 from three to four lanes on each carriageway will go forward in its place.

CPRE's Policy Director Neil Sinden said: 'Thank goodness the Government has finally admitted what a daft, highly damaging and costly scheme the Expressway would have been – and dropped it.

'But the M6 widening will be extremely expensive and generate lots of additional road traffic. The Government promises to restrain the growth in traffic on the widened motorway, and we'll be watching to see if they deliver.

CPRE says M6 widening would increase car dependence and encourage people to move further out of conurbations like Birmingham, the Black Country and North Staffordshire and then commute back in. This conflicts with the regional planning strategy for the West Midlands {2}, damages the countryside and generates increased congestion in urban areas.

It would also have impacts much farther afield in places like the Lake District, already suffering from unsustainable tourism, which would become an even more attractive venue for more people living farther away.

The Government have admitted that estimates of the cost of widening the M6 have increased to nearly £3 billion. This money could be much better spent on other transport schemes in the West Midlands and North West England such as improvements to public transport, and on measures to manage and influence the demand for travel – currently struggling for funding.

A study {3} which reported in 2002 found no strong case for motorway widening, but the Government seem to have ignored its findings.

The Government's decision is a far cry from its recognition in the 1998 Transport White Paper that there was a need to reduce the need to travel and encourage travel by more environmentally friendly means, and that road improvements should be seen as a last resort.

Peter Langley, Vice Chairman of CPRE West Midlands said: 'We are relieved that there will be no new Expressway consuming large areas of Staffordshire and Cheshire countryside, but the decision to go ahead with widening is another example of Government dogma that new road capacity is the answer to everything. 

'Traffic congestion is much less severe on this section of the M6 than further south, yet the Government is pressing ahead with a scheme which will generate more traffic, encourage people to travel further and spread the blight of the existing M6 over a wider area of countryside.

'In the long-run, we are painting ourselves into a corner where we will rely so much on our cars that there will be no escape from congestion.'

Lillian Burns, CPRE North West Regional Group transport spokesperson added: 'CPRE recently published a joint report with the Countryside Agency that showed that new road capacity simply generates more traffic, and that reductions in congestion are rarely as great as predicted and only last a short time. {4}

'The local access roads leading off the widened motorway would quickly reach saturation point with the extra traffic generated by the widening itself.

'The fact is that nearly as many people opposed the widening as the Expressway because they know that the only long-term effects would be more pollution, damage to the environment and local community upheaval.'

– END -

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Sir Max Hastings. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen.

2. The West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy, published by the Deputy Prime Minister in June 2004, favours a strategy of concentrating new development as far as possible in the region's major urban areas and discouraging out-migration and long-distance commuting.

3. The Government's Midlands to Manchester Multi-Modal Study reported in 2002. It revealed that traffic on the M6 in Cheshire and Staffordshire was within the capacity of the road.  Although it eventually recommended widening the M6 to four lanes in each direction, it concluded that it was a matter of 'subjective judgement' whether this would be better than no widening at all. It specifically rejected widening to five lanes in each direction. The study also drew attention to the significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions, contrary to government policy, which would result from an increase in road capacity.

4. Beyond Transport Infrastructure, a report by consultants, was published by CPRE and the Countryside Agency earlier this month. The full report, a summary and the accompanying news release are available from CPRE's website and CPRE's press office.