Top Threats

The British countryside is under greater threat than ever before. Green space is giving way to sprawling housing estates, airports and out-of-town retail centres, all of them driving the expansion of the UK's road network.

Attempts to name the ‘worst' of these schemes are always subjective to some extent. Is the loss of a large area of greenfield land worse than the destruction of a small but important wildlife habitat? Should we care more about the loss of remote landscape to a motorway scheme than the paving over of close-to-town green belt? There are no definitive answers to these questions, and the Manuka Club supports groups that campaign constructively for landscape protection wherever they are.

What is clear is that the most offensive schemes often involve poor or undemocratic decision-making. Spiralling costs and the decision to push ahead in the face of massive public opposition helped fire up campaigns against flagship road-building schemes at Twyford Down and Newbury in the 1990s. Although both these roads were eventually built, tremendous public and media interest helped force the then Government to back off from an even larger road-building programme.

The following developments - in no particular order - have been named by the Manuka Club's expert contacts in transport, housing and waste as amongst the most strategically important campaigns in the UK today.

Road building

M1 and M6 expansion

The Government plans to spend a massive £3.5 billion on expanding the M1 motorway including widening the road by four lanes between Leicester and Leeds, and from the M25 to Luton. Another £2.9 billion could be spent widening the M6, after campaigners defeated proposals to build a new expressway parallel to the existing motorway.

Campaigners liken motorway widening to “digging a ditch in a bog.” Rebecca Lush, coordinator of Roadblock, says, “It will just fill with more traffic. It is time for the government to stand by its rhetoric on reducing travel and tackling climate change, by scrapping expensive road building and investing in the sustainable alternatives.”

A628 Mottram to Tintwistle Bypass - Peak District

Ploughing through a National Park in some of the UK's most iconic countryside, this £103 million road is billed as the solution to heavy freight traffic on a rural road between Manchester and Sheffield.

Campaigners say the same effect could be achieved with a Heavy Goods Vehicle ban that would force lorries to use the nearby motorway network.

Weymouth Relief Road - Dorset

The proposed route of this Dorset County Council (DCC) endorsed road crosses ancient woodland and heathland. The road would also dissect a housing estate.

A significant portion of rush hour congestion is caused by DCC employees commuting by car - campaigners suggest that the Council gets itself a work travel plan and implements sustainable transport measures for the whole area.

Heysham M6 Link - Lancaster

This dual carriageway would destroy green fields to the north of Lancaster which are popular with fishing enthusiasts, walkers and bird-spotters. The hilly landscape means that the road would require deep cuttings, massive embankments and a flyover.

Campaigners are opposing the business case for the road, and promoting alternative solutions to traffic congestion.

Airport expansion

Heathrow

European Union laws on air pollution limits have forced the Government to put plans for a third runway at Britain's biggest airport on hold - for now. Projected pollution levels are being reassessed, and in the meantime, the Government wants to maximise use of existing runways, possibly including more night flights.

Campaigners say that attempts to remove the cap of 480,000 flights per year will mean more noise disturbance for the residents of London and the Thames Valley.

Stansted

Plans for a second runway have attracted huge opposition across the surrounding area, from MPs, local authorities and the public. Nevertheless, the Government has endorsed the construction of a new runway by 2012, which will see up to 80 million passengers a year pass through Stansted.

Campaigners say the airport authorities and Government have ignored the wider social, environmental and economic impacts of airport expansion.

Aberdeen

The number of passengers using Aberdeen airport could double to 5.3 million a year by 2030 if plans for a £10 million runway extension go ahead. The extra capacity will generate more traffic on the surrounding road network - an example of how airport expansion creates knock-on demand for road-building.

Campaigners have branded the scheme "environmental madness" and say that local communities and countryside will be blighted by aircraft noise and traffic pollution.

Waste facilities

Eastcroft incinerator - Nottingham

Nottingham's poor record on recycling means that a large proportion of its waste is burnt in an incinerator close to the city centre, releasing harmful chemicals in the process. Campaigners celebrated in 2006 when the Council rejected plans to expand the incinerator, but the plant operator immediately lodged an appeal and another lengthy battle lies ahead.

Campaigners say that the expansion would have significant public health impacts, and are calling for Nottingham to develop more sustainable waste policies.

Newhaven incinerator - East Sussex

The County Council has backed controversial plans to build a huge incinerator in the small town of Newhaven, against the recommendations of a public inquiry. The facility would burn over 200,000 tonnes of waste each year, generating large amounts of lorry traffic from surrounding towns and cities.

Campaigners say that a new incinerator would be unnecessary if the Council developed more sustainable waste plans in line with central Government guidance.

Huncoat waste treatment plant - Lancaster

Inhabitants of Huncoat have vigorously opposed plans to build a large waste treatment plant next to this small village. The plant would be served a new access road which would destroy part of the green belt.
Campaigners say the council has underestimated the environmental, health and safety impacts upon the local area.

House building

Thames Gateway

The Government plans to build 120,000 new homes in the area by 2016 - 20 percent of them upon greenfield land. The development will damage a predominantly rural landscape which boasts some of Britain's best wildlife habitats.

Campaigners are calling for a ban upon greenfield development, and say that house-building targets could be met by building upon previously developed land alone.

Milton Keynes/South Midlands

Many tens of thousands of new homes are planned for this area under the Government's house-building programme. The development and associated road-building threatens to merge a number of local villages and markets towns into one huge conurbation, with substantial losses of green belt land.

Campaigners wish to see more focus upon brownfield development and urban regeneration.