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Road protest (UK)
Encyclopedia
Road protest in the United Kingdom usually occurs as a reaction
to a stated intention by the empowered authorities to build a new road
, or to modify an existing road. Protests may also be made by those wishing to see new roads built or improvements made to existing roads. Motivation
s for protests may be altruistic or selfish. In some cases, protests have also acted as a training ground for individuals and groups who continue to be active in campaigning and advocacy. You may wish to also refer to a detailed list of individual protests.
' issues could be mitigated through the scheme proposer making concessions to access and small changes to routing, while increasing the levels of compensation would sometimes quieten objections and smooth the passage of a public enquiry.
At that time more consideration was given to economic issues and how the effect on the community and the built environment could be mitigated – with schemes sometimes going so far as to relocate historic buildings affected by road schemes. Since the 1980s much wider social and environmental concerns have been called into question; policy changed to allow environmentalists to be increasingly involved over the loss of wildlife and its habitat.
Since the 1990s there has been more research and awareness around induced demand
and climate change
, which are often now central to the arguments put up by some groups of protesters.
Early attempts to incorporate wider considerations have resulted in lengthy enquiries, with the result that circumstances change while costs escalate. By being much more general in nature, these latter issues can sometimes contrast with the specific local issues raised in a scheme. Because of their less specific nature, at times it has been difficult to address these broad issues within the scope of a public enquiry, which have frequently been restrained by public policy and attempts to speed up or 'simplify' the process. Thus for many years environmental impact was not given as much weighting as the economic benefits quantified within a cost benefit analysis, while questions aimed at national economic models and traffic forecasts could not be addressed within the normal planning process.
Thus, while a road scheme may take a decade or two to work through the planning system, there would still be sections of society who would feel disenfranchised from the process. While protests were often seen at public enquiries in the 1970s and 80s, some of the more recent protests have been characterised by civil disobedience
at the construction site after the enquiry concluded.
enquiry in the early 1970s affected affluent inhabitants of West London who were able to afford representation by professional transport planners. Although they were unable to stop that road, their approach and questioning raised important issues that allowed some of the major policy assumptions to be queried, which subsequently resulted in the Greater London Council
dropping their support of other London urban motorway schemes. It also changed the government's approach towards public enquiries.
Tactics have changed over time and have generally become less technical but more publicity-orientated and political. Initially the public enquiry would often be accompanied by a small group of local residents waving placards and shouting slogans. The Twyford Down
M3
extension saw the first direct action
protest camp, led by idealistic young people and a few ex-Greenham Common protesters. On occasion protests have led to changes in transport policy, planning process, policing techniques and the law.
Recent protests have had supporters from not just the local area but diverse communities including New age travellers
, environmentalist
s, and the rural wealthy.
was opened in 1958 at a time when road building was central to all political party manifestos and viewed as critical infrastructure
for the national economy.
In 1963 a report on urban transport planning policy, Traffic in Towns
, was produced for the UK Department of Transport
by a team headed by the architect
, civil engineer
and planner Colin Buchanan
. which proposed major reorganisation of towns to accommodate the motor car and lorry. It did however also provide clear messages about the damage that cars would cause and the need to limit growth of traffic:-
Over the following years governments and local authorities embarked on a large range of new road building projects, many of which had been considered but not necessarily recommended within the report over the coming years and decades. Buchanan later became president of the Council for the Protection of Rural England, noting that his report had often been misinterpreted as advocating unrestrained redevelopment.
In 1970 the Homes before Roads
movement was formed to oppose plans for the London Ringways
, which eventually lead to the Greater London Council
reversing its policy. After the unsuccessful attempt to halt the construction of the London Westway
, protesters became more radical during the first enquiry into the widening of the Archway Road. Not only was the scheme questioned on technical grounds, but the inquiry was disrupted at intervals. A total of four public inquiries were held between the 1970s and 1990s before this scheme was finally dropped.
Subsequent government policy ensured that new road building could not be undertaken unless it was in accordance with local Strategic Plans. Once firmed up, the basis of these schemes could not be questioned in an enquiry and many plans for the regional trunk network and inter-urban road network were approved at this stage without major interruption. However, political considerations sometime meant that ministerial decisions to proceed with contentious road schemes were deferred. Thus schemes like the East London River Crossing were approved by the enquiry inspector but dragged on through the 1980s and 1990s as they were sent back to another inquiry before being dropped by the minister.
launched proposals for a trunk road
enlargement programme, outlined in the Roads for Prosperity
white paper
(often incorrectly referred to as 'Roads to Prosperity'). The stated aims of the proposals were to assist economic growth, improve the environment, and improve road safety. The 10-year programme was estimated to cost of £23 billion (1989 prices), with 2700 miles (4,345.2 km) of new or improved road to the trunk road network and 150 new bypasses. The benefits of each scheme within the programme would need to be validated through a thorough financial assessment and planning process in accordance with HM Treasury
's Green Book.
In 1991 John Stewart and others formed Alarm UK! to act as a central, umbrella organisation which supplied local groups with information on transport, environmental and campaigning matters and to stage occasional nationwide stunts (including a 'Stop That Road Week') Direct Action protests started at the construction site at Twyford Down
in 1992. Although the route of cuttings had been diverted as a result of earlier representations in the planning process, proposals for a more environmentally sympathetic tunnel had been rejected on cost grounds. Action at Twyford sparked the M11 link road protest
in 1993, Solsbury Hill
in 1994 and others in Glasgow and Lancashire and elsewhere.
In 1992 the Earth Summit
reported concern at rising levels of CO2 emissions which was seen by the UK government as a sufficient risk to justify precautionary measures.
Work on the M3 extension was met by continued disruption to the works and on several occasions protesters received prison sentences for refusing to be bound over, or for breaking court injunctions. One protester, Rebecca Lush
, who had been sent to Holloway prison for two weeks in 1992 for breaking an injunction not to return to the protest site was visited by European commissioner for the environment and later, in 1998, Lush and others successfully challenged the UK Government’s Breach of the Peace
legislation at the European Court of Justice
.
In 1994, the year that the contentious M3 extension at Twyford Down was opened, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution
, comprising some of Britain's top scientists, published a report, Transport and the Environment
that expressed concern about the consequences of further large-scale growth in road traffic, called expenditure on motorways and trunk roads to be reduced to about half its present level and for real investment in alternative transport modes. Also in 1994, SACTRA (The Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment) produced evidence, that for congested roads, the predicted journey time benefits from increased capacity were generally reduced by induced demand
, although typically the net benefits would still be positive. Both the main opposition parties (Labour and Liberal Democrat) adopted policies which promised a focusing instead on Transportation Demand Management
. The Criminal Justice Act
became law and created a series of new offences including peaceful protest Stephen Norris was replaced by Dr. Brian Mawhinney
as secretary for transport.
In 1995 the Newbury bypass
was given the go ahead in July by Dr. Brian Mawhinney half an hour before he resigned, a month after the final protesters had been evicted from the M11 camp. The Newbury bypass was built during 1996 in the face of stiff resistance with over 1,000 people arrested and a policing bill of £26 million.
In November 1995 300 road schemes were canceled leaving schemes costing £6b as detailed in the November budget that year
government in 1997 cancelled the remaining road schemes and committed to an integrated transport system, as described in their white paper A new deal for transport: better for everyone and the protesters disbanded.
In 2002 the government proposed a new major road-building program with 360 miles (579.4 km) of the strategic road network to be widened, 80 major new trunk road schemes to improve safety, and 100 new bypasses on trunk and local roads.
Many protesters from the earlier protests re-organised and in 2004 a number of veterans from the Tywford Down protest visited the Department for Transport to warn of a new campaign of direct action in response to the claimed 200 new road-building proposals in the government's recently unveiled 10-year transport plan. They delivered a letter and a D Lock as a symbol of the past protests.
Rebecca Lush founded Road Block to support a growing number of protests around the country in 2005 which was which became part of the bus and rail advocacy group Campaign for Better Transport (UK) in 2007. Lush
the cosmetics company started to publicly supporting transport related protest groups and others, introduced the 'Charity Pot' to support small campaign groups, such as NoM1Widening and introduced a line called 'Go Green', that they said was inspired by Rebecca Lush (no relation).
In February 2007, Mick Hume, 'The Thunderer' argued in The Times for renewed road building, pointing out that only 150 miles (241.4 km) had been built from 1995 to 2005 and that motorways account for "barely 1 per cent" of Britain's roads. He added that "the Left’s embrace of the anti-road/anti-motorist lobby marked its turn up a deadend: abandoning the social –the progressive attempt to transform society through human action –in favour of the natural –the reactionary attempt to defend the environment against humanity".
Friends of the Earth
and others campaigned against the 2007 Planning Bill intended to speed up the approval of "projects for the development of nationally significant infrastructure" and "provision about town and country planning" which they believed would erode democratic rights.
Protest
A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...
to a stated intention by the empowered authorities to build a new road
Road
A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...
, or to modify an existing road. Protests may also be made by those wishing to see new roads built or improvements made to existing roads. Motivation
Motivation
Motivation is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Motivation is said to be intrinsic or extrinsic. The term is generally used for humans but it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
s for protests may be altruistic or selfish. In some cases, protests have also acted as a training ground for individuals and groups who continue to be active in campaigning and advocacy. You may wish to also refer to a detailed list of individual protests.
Motivation
Motivations have changed over time. Early actions, such as the response to the 1970s London urban motorway proposals, tended to be based on local environmental and social issues. Routing was contentious, while alternative schemes involving tunneling were generally not available because of the difficulty of planning an unobstructed route or on cost grounds. Surface level urban motorways and junctions required large areas of land take, while visually intrusive elevated sections depressed house prices or introduced urban blight to wide areas. Socially, communities could be flattened or split in two with little access between them. Environmental considerations were not just focused on visual impact, but also noise and pollution – vehicle's emissions were not restricted at that time. Some of the local 'NIMBYNIMBY
NIMBY or Nimby is an acronym for the phrase "not in my back yard". The term is used pejoratively to describe opposition by residents to a proposal for a new development close to them. Opposing residents themselves are sometimes called Nimbies...
' issues could be mitigated through the scheme proposer making concessions to access and small changes to routing, while increasing the levels of compensation would sometimes quieten objections and smooth the passage of a public enquiry.
At that time more consideration was given to economic issues and how the effect on the community and the built environment could be mitigated – with schemes sometimes going so far as to relocate historic buildings affected by road schemes. Since the 1980s much wider social and environmental concerns have been called into question; policy changed to allow environmentalists to be increasingly involved over the loss of wildlife and its habitat.
Since the 1990s there has been more research and awareness around induced demand
Induced demand
Induced demand, or latent demand, is the phenomenon that after supply increases, more of a good is consumed. This is entirely consistent with the economic theory of supply and demand; however, this idea has become important in the debate over the expansion of transportation systems, and is often...
and climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
, which are often now central to the arguments put up by some groups of protesters.
Early attempts to incorporate wider considerations have resulted in lengthy enquiries, with the result that circumstances change while costs escalate. By being much more general in nature, these latter issues can sometimes contrast with the specific local issues raised in a scheme. Because of their less specific nature, at times it has been difficult to address these broad issues within the scope of a public enquiry, which have frequently been restrained by public policy and attempts to speed up or 'simplify' the process. Thus for many years environmental impact was not given as much weighting as the economic benefits quantified within a cost benefit analysis, while questions aimed at national economic models and traffic forecasts could not be addressed within the normal planning process.
Thus, while a road scheme may take a decade or two to work through the planning system, there would still be sections of society who would feel disenfranchised from the process. While protests were often seen at public enquiries in the 1970s and 80s, some of the more recent protests have been characterised by civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
at the construction site after the enquiry concluded.
Methods
Early popular attempts to confront schemes generally attempted to work within the existing democratic planning and public enquiry system. The WestwayWestway (London)
The Westway is a long elevated dual carriageway section of the A40 route in west London running from Paddington to North Kensington. The road was constructed between 1964 and 1970 to relieve congestion at Shepherd's Bush caused by traffic from Western Avenue struggling to enter central London on...
enquiry in the early 1970s affected affluent inhabitants of West London who were able to afford representation by professional transport planners. Although they were unable to stop that road, their approach and questioning raised important issues that allowed some of the major policy assumptions to be queried, which subsequently resulted in the Greater London Council
Greater London Council
The Greater London Council was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council which had covered a much smaller area...
dropping their support of other London urban motorway schemes. It also changed the government's approach towards public enquiries.
Tactics have changed over time and have generally become less technical but more publicity-orientated and political. Initially the public enquiry would often be accompanied by a small group of local residents waving placards and shouting slogans. The Twyford Down
Twyford Down
Twyford Down is a small area of ancient chalk downland lying directly to the southeast of Winchester, Hampshire, England. The down's summit, known as Deacon Hill, is towards the north-eastern edge of the area which is renowned for its dramatic rolling scenery, ecologically rich grassland and as a...
M3
M3 motorway
The M3 motorway runs in England for approximately from Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, to Southampton, Hampshire and forms an unsigned section European route E05. It is dual three lanes as far as Junction 8 near Basingstoke and then dual two lane until Junction 9 near Winchester and then dual three...
extension saw the first direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
protest camp, led by idealistic young people and a few ex-Greenham Common protesters. On occasion protests have led to changes in transport policy, planning process, policing techniques and the law.
Recent protests have had supporters from not just the local area but diverse communities including New age travellers
New age travellers
New Age Travellers are groups of people who often espouse New Age or hippie beliefs and travel between music festivals and fairs in order to live in a community with others who hold similar beliefs. Their transport and homes consist of vans, lorries, buses, narrowboats and caravans converted into...
, environmentalist
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
s, and the rural wealthy.
1950-1979
The first British motorwayM6 motorway
The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...
was opened in 1958 at a time when road building was central to all political party manifestos and viewed as critical infrastructure
Critical infrastructure
Critical infrastructure is a term used by governments to describe assets that are essential for the functioning of a society and economy. Most commonly associated with the term are facilities for:*electricity generation, transmission and distribution;...
for the national economy.
In 1963 a report on urban transport planning policy, Traffic in Towns
Traffic in Towns
Traffic in Towns was an influential report and popular book on urban and transport planning policy produced in 1963 for the UK Ministry of Transport by a team headed by the architect, civil engineer and planner Professor Sir Colin Buchanan....
, was produced for the UK Department of Transport
Department for Transport
In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...
by a team headed by the architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
and planner Colin Buchanan
Colin Buchanan (town planner)
Professor Sir Colin D Buchanan was a British town planner. He became Britain's most famous planner following the publication ofTraffic in Towns in 1963, which presented a comprehensive view of the issues surrounding the growth of personal car ownership and urban traffic in the UK.-Life:Buchanan...
. which proposed major reorganisation of towns to accommodate the motor car and lorry. It did however also provide clear messages about the damage that cars would cause and the need to limit growth of traffic:-
"The American policy of providing motorways for commuters can succeed, even in American conditions, only if there is a disregard for all considerations other than the free flow of traffic which seems sometimes to be almost ruthless. Our British cities are not only packed with buildings, they are also packed with history and to drive motorways through them on the American scale would inevitably destroy much that ought to be preserved.
"Distasteful though we find the whole idea, we think that some deliberate limitation of the volume of motor traffic is quite unavoidable. The need for it just can't be escaped. Even when everything that it is possibly to do by way of building new roads and expanding public transport has been done, there would still be, in the absence of deliberate limitation, more cars trying to move into, or within our cities than could possibly be accommodated."
Over the following years governments and local authorities embarked on a large range of new road building projects, many of which had been considered but not necessarily recommended within the report over the coming years and decades. Buchanan later became president of the Council for the Protection of Rural England, noting that his report had often been misinterpreted as advocating unrestrained redevelopment.
In 1970 the Homes before Roads
Homes before Roads
Homes before Roads was a 1970s political movement and campaign in the United Kingdom initially formed in London in 1970 to oppose plans to construct a system of four interlinked concentric motorways through and around London, known as Ringways...
movement was formed to oppose plans for the London Ringways
London Ringways
The London Ringways were a series of four ring roads planned in the 1960s to circle London at various distances from the city centre. They were part of a comprehensive scheme developed by the Greater London Council to alleviate traffic congestion on the city's road system by providing high speed...
, which eventually lead to the Greater London Council
Greater London Council
The Greater London Council was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council which had covered a much smaller area...
reversing its policy. After the unsuccessful attempt to halt the construction of the London Westway
Westway (London)
The Westway is a long elevated dual carriageway section of the A40 route in west London running from Paddington to North Kensington. The road was constructed between 1964 and 1970 to relieve congestion at Shepherd's Bush caused by traffic from Western Avenue struggling to enter central London on...
, protesters became more radical during the first enquiry into the widening of the Archway Road. Not only was the scheme questioned on technical grounds, but the inquiry was disrupted at intervals. A total of four public inquiries were held between the 1970s and 1990s before this scheme was finally dropped.
Subsequent government policy ensured that new road building could not be undertaken unless it was in accordance with local Strategic Plans. Once firmed up, the basis of these schemes could not be questioned in an enquiry and many plans for the regional trunk network and inter-urban road network were approved at this stage without major interruption. However, political considerations sometime meant that ministerial decisions to proceed with contentious road schemes were deferred. Thus schemes like the East London River Crossing were approved by the enquiry inspector but dragged on through the 1980s and 1990s as they were sent back to another inquiry before being dropped by the minister.
1979-1997
In 1989, the Government of Margaret ThatcherPremiership of Margaret Thatcher
The Premiership of Margaret Thatcher began on 4 May 1979, with a mandate to reverse the UK's economic decline and to reduce the role of the state in the economy...
launched proposals for a trunk road
Trunk road
A trunk road, trunk highway, or strategic road is a major road—usually connecting two or more cities, ports, airports, and other things.—which is the recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic...
enlargement programme, outlined in the Roads for Prosperity
Roads for Prosperity
Roads for Prosperity was a controversial white paper published by the Conservative UK Government in 1989 detailing the 'largest road building program for the UK since the Romans' produced in response to rapid increases in car ownership and use over the previous decade...
white paper
White paper
A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that helps solve a problem. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions, and are often requested and used in politics, policy, business, and technical fields. In commercial use, the term has also come to refer to...
(often incorrectly referred to as 'Roads to Prosperity'). The stated aims of the proposals were to assist economic growth, improve the environment, and improve road safety. The 10-year programme was estimated to cost of £23 billion (1989 prices), with 2700 miles (4,345.2 km) of new or improved road to the trunk road network and 150 new bypasses. The benefits of each scheme within the programme would need to be validated through a thorough financial assessment and planning process in accordance with HM Treasury
HM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...
's Green Book.
In 1991 John Stewart and others formed Alarm UK! to act as a central, umbrella organisation which supplied local groups with information on transport, environmental and campaigning matters and to stage occasional nationwide stunts (including a 'Stop That Road Week') Direct Action protests started at the construction site at Twyford Down
Twyford Down
Twyford Down is a small area of ancient chalk downland lying directly to the southeast of Winchester, Hampshire, England. The down's summit, known as Deacon Hill, is towards the north-eastern edge of the area which is renowned for its dramatic rolling scenery, ecologically rich grassland and as a...
in 1992. Although the route of cuttings had been diverted as a result of earlier representations in the planning process, proposals for a more environmentally sympathetic tunnel had been rejected on cost grounds. Action at Twyford sparked the M11 link road protest
M11 link road protest
The M11 link road protest was a major anti-road protest in east London, United Kingdom, in the early 1990s opposing the construction of the "A12 Hackney to M11 link road", also known as the M11 Link Road...
in 1993, Solsbury Hill
Solsbury Hill
Little Solsbury Hill is a small flat-topped hill and the site of an Iron Age hill fort. It is located above the village of Batheaston in Somerset, England. The hill rises to above the River Avon which is just over to the south. It is within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty...
in 1994 and others in Glasgow and Lancashire and elsewhere.
In 1992 the Earth Summit
Earth Summit
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development , also known as the Rio Summit, Rio Conference, Earth Summit was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 June to 14 June 1992.-Overview:...
reported concern at rising levels of CO2 emissions which was seen by the UK government as a sufficient risk to justify precautionary measures.
Work on the M3 extension was met by continued disruption to the works and on several occasions protesters received prison sentences for refusing to be bound over, or for breaking court injunctions. One protester, Rebecca Lush
Rebecca Lush
Rebecca Lush is an environmental activist who was influential during the 1990s and early 2000s when she helped organise a number of major UK road protests including those against the M3 Extension at Twyford Down, the M11 link road and the Newbury bypass...
, who had been sent to Holloway prison for two weeks in 1992 for breaking an injunction not to return to the protest site was visited by European commissioner for the environment and later, in 1998, Lush and others successfully challenged the UK Government’s Breach of the Peace
Breach of the peace
Breach of the peace is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries, and in a wider public order sense in Britain.-Constitutional law:...
legislation at the European Court of Justice
European Court of Justice
The Court can sit in plenary session, as a Grand Chamber of 13 judges, or in chambers of three or five judges. Plenary sitting are now very rare, and the court mostly sits in chambers of three or five judges...
.
In 1994, the year that the contentious M3 extension at Twyford Down was opened, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution
Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution
The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution in the United Kingdom was created under Royal Warrant in 1970 to advise the Queen, Government, Parliament and the public on environmental issues...
, comprising some of Britain's top scientists, published a report, Transport and the Environment
Transport and the Environment (1994 report)
The Transport and the Environment report, published in 1994, was the 18th report published by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. It provided a detailed and comprehensive study of the environmental impact of transport in the United Kingdom and was chaired by Sir John Houghton...
that expressed concern about the consequences of further large-scale growth in road traffic, called expenditure on motorways and trunk roads to be reduced to about half its present level and for real investment in alternative transport modes. Also in 1994, SACTRA (The Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment) produced evidence, that for congested roads, the predicted journey time benefits from increased capacity were generally reduced by induced demand
Induced demand
Induced demand, or latent demand, is the phenomenon that after supply increases, more of a good is consumed. This is entirely consistent with the economic theory of supply and demand; however, this idea has become important in the debate over the expansion of transportation systems, and is often...
, although typically the net benefits would still be positive. Both the main opposition parties (Labour and Liberal Democrat) adopted policies which promised a focusing instead on Transportation Demand Management
Transportation Demand Management
Transportation demand management, traffic demand management or travel demand management is the application of strategies and policies to reduce travel demand , or to redistribute this demand in space or in time.In transport as in any network, managing demand can be a cost-effective alternative to...
. The Criminal Justice Act
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It introduced a number of changes to the existing law, most notably in the restriction and reduction of existing rights and in greater penalties for certain "anti-social" behaviours...
became law and created a series of new offences including peaceful protest Stephen Norris was replaced by Dr. Brian Mawhinney
Brian Mawhinney
Brian Stanley Mawhinney, Baron Mawhinney PC is a British Conservative Party politician. He was a member of the Cabinet from 1994 until 1997 and a Member of Parliament from 1979 until 2005.-Early life:...
as secretary for transport.
In 1995 the Newbury bypass
Newbury bypass
The Newbury bypass, officially known as The Winchester-Preston Trunk Road , is a stretch of dual carriageway road which bypasses the town of Newbury in Berkshire, England...
was given the go ahead in July by Dr. Brian Mawhinney half an hour before he resigned, a month after the final protesters had been evicted from the M11 camp. The Newbury bypass was built during 1996 in the face of stiff resistance with over 1,000 people arrested and a policing bill of £26 million.
In November 1995 300 road schemes were canceled leaving schemes costing £6b as detailed in the November budget that year
1997–present
The incoming LabourLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
government in 1997 cancelled the remaining road schemes and committed to an integrated transport system, as described in their white paper A new deal for transport: better for everyone and the protesters disbanded.
In 2002 the government proposed a new major road-building program with 360 miles (579.4 km) of the strategic road network to be widened, 80 major new trunk road schemes to improve safety, and 100 new bypasses on trunk and local roads.
Many protesters from the earlier protests re-organised and in 2004 a number of veterans from the Tywford Down protest visited the Department for Transport to warn of a new campaign of direct action in response to the claimed 200 new road-building proposals in the government's recently unveiled 10-year transport plan. They delivered a letter and a D Lock as a symbol of the past protests.
Rebecca Lush founded Road Block to support a growing number of protests around the country in 2005 which was which became part of the bus and rail advocacy group Campaign for Better Transport (UK) in 2007. Lush
Lush (store)
Lush is a handmade cosmetics company headquartered in Poole, Dorset in the UK. In 1994, husband and wife Mark and Mo Constantine opened the first Lush store in Poole under the name Cosmetic House Limited. Lush adopted its current name on 10 April 1995. There are now more than 600 stores in 43...
the cosmetics company started to publicly supporting transport related protest groups and others, introduced the 'Charity Pot' to support small campaign groups, such as NoM1Widening and introduced a line called 'Go Green', that they said was inspired by Rebecca Lush (no relation).
In February 2007, Mick Hume, 'The Thunderer' argued in The Times for renewed road building, pointing out that only 150 miles (241.4 km) had been built from 1995 to 2005 and that motorways account for "barely 1 per cent" of Britain's roads. He added that "the Left’s embrace of the anti-road/anti-motorist lobby marked its turn up a deadend: abandoning the social –the progressive attempt to transform society through human action –in favour of the natural –the reactionary attempt to defend the environment against humanity".
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International is an international network of environmental organizations in 76 countries.FOEI is assisted by a small secretariat which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns...
and others campaigned against the 2007 Planning Bill intended to speed up the approval of "projects for the development of nationally significant infrastructure" and "provision about town and country planning" which they believed would erode democratic rights.
General
- List of road protests in the UK and Ireland
- Environmental direct action in the United KingdomEnvironmental direct action in the United KingdomThe environmental direct action movement in the United Kingdom started in 1991 with the forming of the first UK Earth First! group. The movement rapidly grew to include road protest camps, airport camps, anti-GMO actions, electricity generators, and quarry actions.-History:The Earth First! movement...
- Freeway and expressway revoltsFreeway and expressway revoltsMany freeway revolts took place in developed countries during the 1960s and 1970s, in response to plans for the construction of new freeways, a significant number of which were abandoned or significantly scaled back due to widespread public opposition; especially of those whose neighborhoods would...
*1960s-1970s protests in the USA - Fuel protest protests against increases in taxation on petrol and diesel
- Rebecca LushRebecca LushRebecca Lush is an environmental activist who was influential during the 1990s and early 2000s when she helped organise a number of major UK road protests including those against the M3 Extension at Twyford Down, the M11 link road and the Newbury bypass...
Protest groups
- Dongas road protest groupDongas road protest groupThe Dongas Tribe was a collection of UK road protesters and travellers in England originally noted for their occupation of Twyford Down outside Winchester, Hampshire...
- Reclaim the StreetsReclaim the StreetsReclaim The Streets is a collective with a shared ideal of community ownership of public spaces. Participants characterize the collective as a resistance movement opposed to the dominance of corporate forces in globalization, and to the car as the dominant mode of transport.-Protests:Reclaim The...
- Road Block
- Road Alert!
- Earth First!Earth First!Earth First! is a radical environmental advocacy group that emerged in the Southwestern United States in 1979. It was co-founded on April 4th, 1980 by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, and less directly, Bart Koehler and Ron Kezar....
Further reading and viewing
- The Secret Life of the Motorway, BBC, 3 part series. The last programme deals with the protest movement http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007xmdn
External links
- Road Alert!
- A history of UK road protest (up to 1997)
- Third Battle of Newbury factfile
- Environment & road protest camps (mainly UK and Ireland)- 2007
- World Carfree NetworkWorld Carfree NetworkThe World Carfree Network is an international network that coordinates the actions of car-free advocates from around the world. It is the main hub of the global car-free movement...