Better Transport

While it's not easy to stop a road from being built, campaigners have had successes. For example:

• Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has finally dropped plans to build the Thames Gateway Bridge. The bridge was rejected by the public inquiry inspector in 2006, only for the Government to demand a new inquiry with a new inspector. The Mayor told the London Assembly that he was "not pursuing the current proposal" which was neither "well sited or well thought out".
• In December 2007 the Government scrapped plans for a new and very controversial dual carriageway through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site after years of campaigning by Campaign for Better Transport and other groups. Instead they plan to implement small-scale improvements to existing roads, and possibly close the A344 which runs right through the stone complex.
• Plans for a Harnham Relief Road and Brunel Link Road (also known as the Salisbury Bypass) have been rejected. The road would have destroyed water meadows near Salisbury Cathedral. Thankfully Wiltshire County Council has dropped the scheme and our local group is campaigning now for sustainable transport solutions instead.
• In July 2006 we won a decade-long battle to stop the widening of the A47 Acle Straight in the Norfolk Broads when the Government announced it wouldn’t widen the road and would instead put money into improving the road’s safety.
• In December 2004 the Government turned down a proposal to dual the A303/A30 through the Blackdown Hills in Somerset. The scheme would have been a disaster for the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, threatening one of the last remaining areas of quiet countryside in southern England.
• In the 1990s a massive movement against road building led to hundreds of schemes being scrapped. Campaigners did not focus on suggesting alternative routes, and pushing the problems on others, but opposed all road building because it would lead to more traffic growth.