Campaigners are calling on Transport Secretary Louise Hay to scrap the Lower Thames Crossing (LTC), a £10 billion, 22km, six-lane motorway tunnel, and put the money into public transport.
Mr Hague has until Friday 4 October 2024 to decide whether to approve LTC’s development consent order (DCO). as soon as you canFinance Minister Rachel Reeves has urged Mr Hague to make it a priority.
The crossing is the biggest road-building project proposed in the National Highways Plan and will reinforce the Conservative government’s car- and road-centric transport policies, undermining already failed efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector.
Excess capacity
The argument in favour of the LTC was that it would reduce congestion at the nearby Dartford Junction; Flawed More roads mean more traffic.
Campaigners argue that the £10 billion could be put into much-needed improvements to public transport, the most effective lever to decarbonisation.
Chris Todd Transportation Action Network “LTC gives Labour a huge opportunity to get £10 billion back, but the project will only deliver congestion relief in Dartford for five years, at best.”
“That money could be used by governments to improve public transport, which people all over the world desperately need.”
Lee Hughes Thames Crossing Action GroupThe Council, which has been coordinating local efforts to block the LTC since 2016, said: “The project will never achieve its stated objectives. Dartford Crossing will remain overcapacity. On a per mile basis it will cost more than HS2.”
unsolved
“Buses and bicycles will not be allowed. The plan is to quietly build a ‘smart highway’ with no shoulders. And locals [in south Essex] Pollution from the A13, A127 and new access roads will put us in the toxic triangle.
“National Highways itself estimates that the LTC will increase carbon emissions by six million tonnes, at a time when we should be cutting them. This is not the legacy we want to leave to our children and grandchildren.”
Mr Hughes called on people across the UK to lobby their MPs to call for it to be cancelled.
Senior Labour figures have not commented on the LTC since the election, but there are signs they are justifying it as part of efforts to mobilise private infrastructure finance to “rebuild Britain”.
In her keynote speech speech On 9 July, First Minister Rachel Reeves said she would ask Transport Secretary Hague to “prioritise decisions on infrastructure projects that have remained outstanding for far too long”. The decision on LTC is by far the largest of these.
July 29, Reeves Announced She said some road projects would be cancelled along with the hospital construction due to budget shortfalls. The A303 tunnel under Stonehenge and the A27 projects would be cancelled, but other projects, possibly including the LTC, would be reviewed, she said. So the decision lies with Mr Hague.
industry
Just before the election, a Labour spokesman said pointed The Conservatives slammed the LTC as an example of a “failed approach to infrastructure” and said delays were “unsustainable”, but did not comment on the merits of the project itself.
Shortly after Mr Reeves’ speech, Labour MP Torsten Bell also Quote He points to the long-delayed LTC as an example of a costly and inefficient plan: “If you want to get to net zero, and you want to get to it without high costs, you have to build something that’s not going to please everybody.” He, too, would not comment on whether the project is even necessary.
Johan Beckford of the Green Alliance Responded:”resolution [to indecision on the LTC] “It’s urgently needed. But the decision should be made to stop the project, at least in its current form.”
and Jurgen Meyer, the former UK boss of Siemens who wrote an unpublished review of Labour’s transport policy. Condemned The Prime Minister opposed construction delays and called for “a long-term plan to build an ambitious, economically transformative transport infrastructure, linked to a proper industrial strategy”. He did not distinguish between public transport and road projects.
Jurgen Mayer, Torsten Bell and Louise Haigh did not respond to requests for comment.
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Labor Release A wider review of infrastructure policy, including transport, energy and digital connectivity, was launched in January, whose committee included Meyer as well as senior executives from Arup, Mace and Skanska – companies that make tens of millions of pounds a year for shareholders by delivering large-scale construction projects.
Behind this policy offensive is the Labour Party’s plan Black Rock [the world’s biggest investment firm] The government’s policy of ‘Rebuild Britain’ will lead to further privatisation of infrastructure.
Economist Daniela Gabor says Warned“The choice here is not simply about public or private financing of public goods, but whether the British public should accept the Government providing public subsidies to privatised infrastructure.”
Just days after the election, Labor showed it was prepared to overcome local opposition to its infrastructure plans. hopeful Reconsider the decision to block the construction of two data centers. energyThe cost of water and materials for such centers is given to technical researchers. nightmare.
Transportation Group: Improving Quality of Life Warned To meet climate targets, total car kilometres travelled will need to be reduced by at least 20% and possibly 50% by 2030. But there are no legal requirements for governments or other authorities to reduce traffic.
intense
Group Research show The current government investment plan, which includes LTC construction, will increase greenhouse gas emissions from the UK’s strategic road network by 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year by 2032, but emissions need to be reduced by 167 million tonnes per year to meet climate targets.
Even the government’s own Committee on Climate Change has warned that decarbonising the transport sector is woefully slow, with climate campaigners arguing that it relies too much on electric vehicles to reduce emissions from the sector.
Committee review A report on climate change policy progress published last month said transport emissions had fallen by less than two-thirds of what was predicted since 2008, with improvements “largely offset by the larger size of new vehicle models”.
In this review, [government’s] “A revised Roads Policy Statement with emissions targets” and the diversion of HS2 funding to road building.
The LTC will start shortly after the Silvertown Tunnel, a few kilometres above the Thames, is due to open next year and was forced through by the Labour Mayor of London despite fierce local opposition on climate, air pollution and social inequality grounds.
Rapid
Victoria Lance, Stop Silvertown Tunnel campaigner Union “Given the climate and air pollution crisis we face, I find it hard to believe that 1970s-style road projects are being seriously considered again. The new Administration will take the climate crisis seriously and follow through on its promise to cancel the LTC. We need transportation policies that reduce car travel first and foremost.”
The Greater London Authority is currently consulting on proposed tolls for drivers crossing the Thames via the Silvertown Tunnel and the nearby Blackwall Tunnel, and campaigners continue to urge the Mayor to consider using the new tunnel for public transport and non-motorised traffic rather than cars and lorries.
There are two visions for transport policy: the first is to focus on road expansion under the dubious pretext of supporting economic growth and to embrace flawed, emissions-intensive projects like the LTC, which will deepen the climate crisis and exacerbate social inequalities.
The second one is, Transportation Action Network, Better buses motion, Let’s get Glasgow moving and Fairfree LondonIt envisages investment in public transport as a socially owned and managed public service, a shift away from private cars and rapid decarbonisation.
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You can voice your dissent against the LTC. See the proposal from the Thames Crossing Action Group here.
