Stop Mottram Bypass wrecking climate and Green Belt
Stop Mottram Bypass wrecking climate and Green Belt
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Latest: April 16, 2024
A57 Legal Case Update - April 2024
We have posted an update on our website which details the events of the last few months in our court case.
The trustees of the charity are very grateful for all the support that we have received…
Read moreThis road will split Manchester’s Green Belt, lead to a carve up of the Peak District National Park, and increase carbon emissions— but with your help we can stop it.
The eastern half of the proposed dual carriageway around Mottram (red line on photo) as it leaves the underpass on the left-hand side of the picture and descends to Mottram Moor on the right-hand side of picture. The National Park is off picture to the right.
The government has given the green light to the A57 Link Roads (part of the so-called ‘Trans Pennine Upgrade Programme’). If built, this new roads project could become one of the most environmentally damaging ever constructed in Britain:
● The route (the so-called Mottram By-pass) cuts across the Manchester Green Belt and will promote further ‘infill’ development around Mottram and Hollingworth. Plans for new housing there have already appeared.
● Its eastern end (on Mottram Moor) is a dagger aimed at the National Park which it must cross on its way to the M1: the park boundary is less than two miles east of the scheme now authorised. Existing plans aspire to a motorway-style dual carriageway defacing the natural beauty of Longdendale and on eastwards to the M1.
● The road will increase congestion, accidents and rat-running in Glossop. It will not civilise life in Tintwistle and Hollingworth, where villagers suffer lorries thundering past their doorsteps and rattling their windows; it will be worse.
● Although we are now living through a climate emergency, this monstrous new road will increase emissions of carbon dioxide by thousands of tons. But in response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations has called for carbon emissions to be cut immediately if the world is to escape catastrophe.
All this could be avoided with CPRE’s proposed ‘Low Carbon Travel’ plan to restrict heavy lorry traffic and improve bus journeys, walking and cycling, but our plan was rejected.
To combat this disastrous project the local branch of CPRE (Peak District and South Yorkshire) is taking the only possible course left— we are going to law.
We have filed our claim for judicial review with the High Court. Our case is that it is unlawful for the government to allow such road schemes (1) without assessing the cumulative effect of carbon emissions and (2) failing to consider alternatives which would not harm the green belt, the national park, or our climate.
The law costs money. We have instructed solicitors and barristers specialising in environmental law; they have generously agreed to fight the case and have given us a discount. Our initial target was £1,000 but this will have to be stretched to £5,000 to cover the legal advice we have already had. In the longer run we may need as much as £58,000 if the case proceeds to a full hearing.
We cannot manage this without your support.
Please give what you can for our countryside and our planet. Many thanks.
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Tomo Thompson (CEO of CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire)
April 16, 2024
A57 Legal Case Update - April 2024
We have posted an update on our website which details the events of the last few months in our court case.
The trustees of the charity are very grateful for all the support that we have received over the last 18 months which enabled us to undertake this important legal challenge.
In our Centenary year, CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire will continue to campaign for the protection of the landscapes we have been instrumental in safeguarding during our first hundred years.
Thank you,
CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire
Tomo Thompson (CEO of CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire)
Jan. 19, 2024
January Update ....
Happy New Year !
A big thank you to everyone who has supported the CPRE PDSY case to date.
This week we were in London to support Andrew Boswell for his appeal hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice. His appeal covers the same climate ground as our case, so it was a sort of dress rehearsal for our future hearing. The case was heard before Lord Justice Peter Jackson, Lord Justice Dingemans, and Sir Launcelot Henderson.
On behalf of Andrew Boswell, David Wolfe, King’s Counsel, laid out a strong case that the Government broke the law in approving the three A47 road schemes without doing a proper cumulative assessment of the carbon impacts. In support campaigners on road schemes from around the country travelled to hear the case inside the court and spread the message ‘stop the climate coverup’ outside it. We now have to wait for the judgement to be handed down, after which our case will become live again.
Whatever the outcome of the Boswell hearing, challenging the climate assessment has been crucial. It has already raised awareness of climate change issues. Questions are being asked about why there are so many legal cases, such as ours, holding up road schemes. And there is now strong advice from many quarters that the existing roads programme needs to be halted and assessed to ensure it contributes to net zero, and doesn’t increase emissions - taking us in the wrong direction in a climate emergency
Our legal fund is still short of the money needed to pay the legal fees so far. Please spread the link https://tinyurl.com/dftlegalA57 and donate to the legal fund if you possibly can.
Once again many thanks for your support.
CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire
Tomo Thompson (CEO of CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire)
Nov. 22, 2023
CPRE Legal Case Update
Last Friday (17 November 2023) we received the disappointing news that the judge found against us in her verdict on one of our two grounds against the Secretary of State for Transport. This particular grounds was our claim that because of the damage the road would do to the Green Belt, alternatives should have been properly considered.
Following legal advice the charity accepts the verdict and has decided not to appeal the judge’s dismissal. However, contrary to several media reports, that is not the end of the story. The progress of our other grounds (the assessment of climate impacts) is still live and now depends on the appeal hearing of another similar case (by Dr Andrew Boswell), as explained in our last email update in October.
It is the outcome of that hearing that will determine the next steps in our case.
We expect to know more in the first quarter of 2024.
The legal fund is still short of the money needed to pay the legal fees so far. Please spread the fundraising link https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/stop-mottram-bypass/ and please donate if you can.
We are enormously grateful for your support. Thank you,
CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire
Tomo Thompson (CEO of CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire)
Oct. 10, 2023
UPDATE ON STOP MOTTRAM BYPASS
A big thank you to everyone who has supported the CPRE case. Mrs Justice Thornton heard our claim at the High Court on October 3rd and 4th, and here is an update.
First of all, our legal team led by David Wolfe, Kings Counsel, made an absolutely superb case for our Ground 2 on the Green Belt. He laid out strong persuasive arguments for why alternatives needed a proper assessment in this case in order for the Secretary of State to be able to lawfully consent a scheme that would harm the Green Belt. We will have a judgement on this ground in a few weeks’ time.
The process for Ground 1 on climate emissions is more complicated. Ground 1 was adjourned (neither heard nor dismissed) as it is similar to the ground used in the Boswell case. Having had his claim dismissed, Andrew Boswell is now seeking permission for a hearing of his claim before the Court of Appeal. If this is not allowed then his claim ends, and so does ours. If however he is given permission for his appeal to be heard, we will have to await the outcome of that (which could be several months from now) before we know where we stand procedurally. Essentially, we are in limbo until we hear if Andrew has permission or not to proceed to the Court of Appeal.
The legal fund is still short of the money needed to pay the legal fees so far. Please spread the link https://tinyurl.com/dftlegalA57 and donate more money to the legal fund if you possibly can. Every donation helps us defend the Green Belt and the climate. This is so important in the context of the mayhem unleashed last week with investment lost to High Speed rail now going into numerous road schemes.
Once again many thanks for your support,
CPRE Peak District and South Yorkshire
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