Mark Coleman threatens legal challenge to Highways England over M62 smart motorway conversion

Retired vicar of Rochdale, Mark Coleman has threatened a legal challenge regarding the controversial conversion of the M62 into a smart motorway to Highways England – which oversees the management and maintenance of the UK’s motorways.

Revd Mark, 62, has argued that Highways England should have to carry out an environmental impact assessment before converting 19 miles of motorway between Rochdale and Brighouse (junctions 20 and 25) as “the change will lead to large increases in traffic and pollution.”

The smart motorway designs – which use variable speed limits to reduce congestion and can turn the hard shoulder into an additional driving lane – are already used on sections of major motorways, including the M62. Lane closures are managed by overhead systems, with safe laybys installed at regular intervals.

The new 19-mile section of smart motorway had been announced over the Pennines to link up with other schemes on the M62. After being linked with an increase in the number of road deaths, the Department for Transport carried out an evidence stocktake on the safety of smart motorways and made 18 recommendations to improve their safety.

Highways England told Rochdale Online construction continued on all smart motorways at all times and were not put on hold, despite Transport Secretary Grant Shapps telling the House of Commons last year that that would be the case. The Secretary of State told MPs that no new smart motorways will be opened until he had the outcome of the stocktake which has now been complete.

 

Read more: Roll out of smart motorways on hold over safety concernsPublished: 31 January 2020

Most smart motorways are built under permitted development, which allows construction to begin without the need for an environmental impact assessment. The M4 between London and Reading, is the only one to have required planning permission, due to the need for extra land in construction.

Environmental campaigner Revd Mark set up a crowdfunder to pay for legal advice to challenge the government agency. A total of £2,855 was raised through crowdfunding, along with £2,000 from an anonymous private donor.

His lawyers, Richard Buxton Solicitors, wrote to Highways England with a pre-action letter that outlined what the legal case would be if it went to court.

The Revd said: “This huge 19-mile ‘smart’ motorway will lead to large increases in traffic and pollution. At a time when we need to do all we can to dramatically reduce emissions it makes no sense to add extra lanes to motorways. This will make it harder for the government to meet its target to cut carbon by 78% by 2035 and those of us who live nearby will also suffer from more air and noise pollution. 

“In this climate and ecological emergency, we need urgently to cut through to what really matters. We must cut CO2 emissions quickly and cannot have the government expanding motorways and increasing traffic and carbon in an ‘under the counter manner’.

"We will be keeping a very close eye on what Highways England do next with this M62 Smart Motorway extension from Rochdale to Huddersfield, and will wait to see if they take climate change seriously. We remain vigilant.”

David Bray, smart motorway programme director at Highways England said: “We remain committed to delivering the M62 upgrade between junctions 20 and 25 to a high environmental standard. 

“During the development of our schemes we carry out environmental assessments and we publish Notices of Determination to provide more information to the public about our decisions. These assessments are not mandatory for projects of this nature, however, for this scheme, we’ve decided to review the environmental assessment. 

“We will publish a new Notice of Determination in due course and our plan remains to start this improvement in early 2023.” 

Revd Coleman worked closely with the Transport Action Network, which is challenging the government’s £27 billion RIS2 roads programme, and also the roads planning policy for being ‘out of date on climate change’.

He added: “I am so grateful for their support and expertise. It is reassuring to know that Transport Action Network will be keeping up the pressure on Highways England and the Department for Transport to take climate change seriously.”