Written evidence submitted by Transport Action Network (RSM0105)

Introduction

Transport Action Network is a national, not-for-profit organisation, that provides free support to people and groups pressing for more sustainable transport in their area and opposing cuts to bus services, damaging road schemes and large unsustainable developments.

We would like to submit evidence on five areas which we feel deserve further scrutiny:

1. Lack of scrutiny through planning / legal process
2. Lack of Environmental Impact Assessment and assessment of climate change impacts
3. Significant carbon impacts of new Smart Motorway schemes
4. New Smart Motorways being designed to old, unsafe standards
5. Departure from original M42 pilot and the impact of higher speeds

1. Lack of scrutiny through planning / legal process

Smart Motorways (SMs) are being pushed through using “permitted development” powers and so are avoiding the scrutiny that would occur if they sought planning permission or a Development Consent Order (DCO) as per other road schemes. We recommend the Transport Select Committee requests that Highways England or the Department for Transport disclose the legal advice it sought that recommended these schemes do not require planning consent.

Highways England has decided that SMs can be delivered pursuant to Part 9 of Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 and therefore do not require planning permission. Usually, road schemes of this size and scale would be treated as Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) under the Planning Act 2008. Highways England claim that because the schemes fall within the highways existing boundary and because there are no significant environmental impacts there is therefore no requirement to treat these schemes as NSIPs, nor to seek planning permission, and the schemes therefore escape scrutiny through the statutory planning process. Conveniently for Highways England the need for consultation on planning consent for these schemes is also removed.

2. Lack of Environmental Impact Assessment and assessment of climate change impacts

Smart Motorways (SMs) are also being pushed through without a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) despite the significant impacts on climate change of these schemes. Carbon impacts are also being scoped out of preliminary environmental assessments.

We recommend the Transport Select Committee asks Highways England to assess the carbon impacts of all Smart Motorway schemes and to include climate change in full Environmental Impact Assessments for Smart Motorway schemes.

The European Union (EU) Directive 2014/52/EU and the 1980 Highways Act, as amended by the Environmental Impact Assessment (Miscellaneous Amendments Relating to Harbours, Highways and Transport) Regulations 2017, require that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) be undertaken unless a scheme is an Annex II scheme where no significant environmental impacts have been identified. So far it seems that Highways England has determined that all SMs schemes do not require a full EIA. Highways England issues a Notice of Determination which states that an EIA is not required.

In researching some of these Determinations, Transport Action Network has established that in preliminary environmental scoping work, climate change has been explicitly scoped out of many of the environmental assessments and scoping exercises. This means that the carbon impacts of SM schemes has not been assessed nor considered when determining whether a SM scheme requires an EIA. This is extraordinary considering that climate change is the most pressing environmental issue, road transport is one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions in the UK, and the amended target in the Climate Change Act 2008 to reach net zero emissions by 2050. It is also a requirement of Highways England’s Licence at 5.23 (e)[1]:

 “In complying with 4.2(g) and its general duty under section 5(2) of the Infrastructure Act 2015 to have regard to the environment, the Licence holder should:

e. Calculate and consider the carbon impact of road projects and factor carbon into design decisions, and seek to minimise carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases from its operations”

The recently published Environmental Assessment Report (EAR) for the M62 Junction 20-25 Smart Motorway scheme[2] explicitly states that climate change was scoped out. This scheme is included in RIS2 and has not yet started main works. Another RIS2 scheme which has not yet started main works is the M3 Junction 9-13 Smart Motorway scheme. The Environmental Assessment Report (EAR)[3] for this scheme also explicitly scopes out assessment of climate change.

The EAR for the M6 Junction 21a-26 Smart Motorway scheme, which has also not started main works, also scopes out climate change[4] when determining whether the scheme needs a statutory EIA.

3. Significant carbon impacts of new Smart Motorway schemes

Transport Action Network has used Freedom of Information requests to obtain the Appraisal Summary Tables (ASTs) of most of the schemes in the Government’s RIS2 roads programme. The ASTs contain Highways England’s assessment of the carbon impacts of these scheme over the 60 year appraisal period. We have collated these Highways England carbon assessments on our website[5], and they show that RIS2 schemes will increase carbon emissions by over 27 million tonnes of extra carbon from extra traffic. The ASTs for six of the seven Smart Motorway schemes show they will increase emissions by over 8 million tonnes.

Eight million extra tonnes of carbon is not “insignificant” especially when we must do all we can to reduce emissions, especially from road transport which has failed to fall significantly since 1990. It is astonishing that the carbon impact of these schemes is not being considered in decision making, and is being scoped out of environmental assessments.

We recommend the Transport Select Committee asks Highways England to assess the carbon impacts of all Smart Motorway schemes and to include climate change in full Environmental Impact Assessments for Smart Motorway schemes.

4. New Smart Motorways are being designed to old, unsafe standards

In responding to a Highways England public engagement event for the M6 Junction 21a-26 Smart Motorway scheme we established from Highways England that they are still designing this scheme using the old design standards prior to the Stocktake and Action Plan published in March 2020. The Action Plan required new Smart Motorway schemes to have Emergency Refuge Areas (ERAs) to be spaced ideally three-quarters of a mile apart, and no more than a mile apart. Highways England confirmed to us that some of the EARs on the M6 J21s-26 scheme will be up to 2.4km apart[6]. Highways England maintained this was because the M6 scheme was not a “new” scheme and therefore did not need to meet the design standard in the March 2020 Action Plan. The M6 scheme has not yet started main works, so there is still time for Highways England to redesign the scheme to the current standard and we do not understand why Highways England would not take this opportunity to do so. We do not know which other SM schemes in RIS2 are also still be designed and planned to the old unsafe standards and not to the standards in the Action Plan.

We recommend the Transport Select Committee asks Highways England whether Smart Motorway schemes which have not yet started main works will be designed to the safer design standards in the Action Plan.

5. Departure from original M42 pilot and the impact of higher speeds

We are very concerned that Smart Motorways have massively departed from the original objectives and parameters of the M42 pilot in the mid-2000s. The M42 pilot was based on all traffic in all lanes running at a standard 50mph. This achieved considerable carbon, air quality, safety and congestion benefits. These enormous savings were used to justify the roll-out of Smart Motorways to ministers, public and environmental groups. Lower traffic speeds lead to fewer carbon emissions, other air pollutants, and reduced collisions. However, now Smart Motorways run at the standard motorway speed limit of 70mph, the carbon, air quality and safety benefits have all evaporated. Ministers and the public have been misled about the benefits and costs of Smart Motorway schemes, and the costs (in terms of lives lost and hugely increased carbon emissions) now vastly outweigh any short-term congestion benefits from increased capacity.

It is time that it is acknowledged that a deadly mistake has been made, and all new Smart Motorway schemes in RIS2 (M6 Junctions 21A-26, M62 Junctions 20-25, M56 Junctions 6-8, M40 / M42 interchange, A1(M) Junctions 6-8, M25 Junction 10-16, M3 Junction 9-14) should be halted immediately, and the hard shoulder reinstated on all other SM schemes which are in construction or are complete.

April 2021