UPDATE: March 16, 2020
NEG has been hugely successful raising awareness and applying pressure locally and in Westminster, leading to the Ox-Cam Expressway being “paused”! We must keep the pressure on until it’s officially cancelled.
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What’s new
Budget and Road Investment Strategy 2 (RIS2) – Expressway Paused NOT Cancelled
Ox-Cam Expressway “paused” is a missed opportunity to cancel. Housing growth still being planned
It is a missed opportunity and very disappointing that the budget was not used to cancel the Expressway. Given the budget was focused on messages about “getting things done”, the RIS2 document would have been the ideal place to announce complete cancellation of this destructive scheme.
RIS2 announced the Ox-Cam Expressway is “paused”, saying:
“We are now pausing further development of the scheme while we undertake further work on other potential road projects that could support the Government’s ambition for the Oxford-Cambridge Arc”
“including exploring opportunities to alleviate congestion around the Arc’s major economic centres such as Milton Keynes”
Interestingly RIS2 says the government “investigated the potential for a new high-quality link road between the M1 and M40 which could support this growth and examined the costs and benefits of a range of options, taking account of the views of local authorities and residents in the Arc.
Interesting that RIS2 only talks about M1-M40, not M1-M4 (from M1-Cambridge the road is almost all at Expressway standard). Great to see the RIS2 acknowledge the impact of what Local Authorities & residents of the Arc have said… they didn’t seek us out... but we have made our views clear!
ALSO of note are the expected commitments to improve junctions between Black Cat and Caxton Gibbet & complete the A34 Newbury to M40 junction 9 safety enhancements.
The Budget says that the corridor of land connecting Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge (the OxCam Arc) has been designated as a key economic priority – be ready for development!
Both the Budget & RIS2 mention work to be done with local partners to prepare a long-term Spatial Framework to identify the role of transport, “proposed economic and housing growth ambitions for the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.”
The Budget says the government will “examine and develop the case for up to four new Development Corporations in the OxCam Arc at Bedford, St Neots/Sandy, Cambourne and Cambridge, which includes plans to explore the case for a New Town at Cambridge, to accelerate new housing and infrastructure development.” - this does not mean there won’t be development in other areas of the Arc, far from it!
In the News
There has been a lot of coverage locally of the “pausing” of the Expressway in print media, on BBC South Today, BBC Radio Oxford and BBC Three Counties Radio.
Further NEG activities
We continue awareness-raising with a NEG Woburn Sands event in Wavendon and a NEG meeting in Great Brickhill
Working with other groups including CPRE & Transport Action Network on next steps.
What’s next
Driving petition sign ups on site
Continue putting pressure on to cancel the Ox-Cam Expressway in total
Continue working with the Stronger Together group and working on a programme of activities for schools
Events
TBC Leighton Buzzard
We urgently need your help.
Your donations are needed now, to help us run the campaign and pay for political consultants and other professional experts to bring this campaign to the attention of Westminster as well as local politicians.
No Expressway Group believes there is no need for an Oxford-Cambridge Expressway, nor the over-inflated housing targets associated with it, and we will actively campaign against it and support other organisations with the same objectives.
Our environment is a national asset which is critical for everyone’s health and well-being. We must not let it be destroyed.
Your donations help us to spread information about the Expressway, run and build support for the campaign:
£10 could pay for one roadside Correx poster
£15 could pay for one roadside poster on a wooden stake
£20 could pay for one A1 printed colour poster for our pagoda display
£35 could pay for 250 A5 printed leaflets for the campaign
£70 could pay for one pole and two panels for our travelling pagoda display
£150 could pay for one feather flag for our travelling pagoda
£180 could pay to run this website for one year
£300 could pay for a 3 minutes of an Expressway Story
£500 could pay for a 5 minutes of an Expressway Story
A greater or other amount could contribute to the cost of professional support for our campaign in general and in preparation for Planning Inspectorate hearings
Please note:
The No Expressway Group has a group bank account to which the Chair, Secretary and Treasurer are signatories. The group will publish accounts on noexpressway.org each year which will be audited by an accountant from outside the NEG group.
If any funds are left at the end of the campaign, these will be donated equally between RSPB and BBOWT.