The Petition:
“We demand that the Government abandons plans for an Oxford to Cambridge Expressway, which include aspirations for vast growth rates (3-6 times national average) for cars, houses and people.
“The scale of development and urban sprawl will cause devastation to the environment, increased congestion that will harm local communities and wildlife, and a surge in air pollution that will damage our health for generations to come. Ecosystems and habitats are already stressed, with many species in catastrophic decline.
“With this scale and type of development, ‘net zero carbon’ targets are unattainable and ‘net environmental gain’ proven unachievable. We demand that the investment allocated to this project is put into public transport systems such as East-West Rail and its electrification instead.”
Build the Railway. Stop the Expressway!
Our campaign needs your support now—please sign the petition. The longer this goes on the harder it is to stop. Sign up here, or read more about our objections lower down this page.
Our Objection to the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway
The Expressway: The expressway is the link connecting massive proposed housing developments between Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire. It is part of a car-based solution to the car-based problem of congestion on our existing roads, but will actually make these problems worse because the expressway plans facilitate workers being able to reach their places of work in the same drive time as at present, but from far greater distances. So, the expressway encourages longer journeys to work; greater fuel consumption, more green-house gas and particulate emissions. There couldn’t be a better recipe for increasing global warming, or respiratory problems in our children!
The Houses: Yes, it really is one million new houses between Oxford and Cambridge by 2050, however much our local politicians and Councillors are in denial about this figure. Robert Jenrick MP Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, confirmed this again in a letter to John Bercow on 29th July 2019. We agree more housing is needed, but not >100% growth in Oxon & 87% growth in affected areas of Bucks by 2050 (compared with the 16% predicted for the nation as a whole by the Office of National Statistics). The scale here is the issue. That one million houses aspiration is made up of about 450,000 houses already in submitted/approved Local Plans running to the mid 2030s, PLUS 550,000 so-called ‘expressway-unlocked’ houses to 2050. All those homes need infrastructure: schools, clinics, hospitals, water and electricity supplies, waste and sewage disposal etc. e.g., one form entry primary school is required for every 800 new houses. That’s 1,250 such schools across the Arc for those one million new houses by 2050. Developers. make only minimal contributions to the real cost of infrastructure, which is ultimately borne by the Government, or by tax- and rate-payers.
The Environment: England has destroyed 97% of its wildflower meadows since the 1930s and more ancient woodlands in the forty years after WWII than in the previous 400 years. Environmental resources are providing goods and services – the air we breathe, the water we drink – at little or no cost to ourselves. Farmers use the landscape to grow our food. Take any of these things away and we perish. Our politicians point out that only about 10% - 15% of our landscape is urban development, implying that there is plenty of green landscape for further development. But if we have lost so much with ‘only’ 10% of the landscape developed, how much more do they think we can take without catastrophic declines in our life support systems? Highways England’s own calculations show the land-take for housing development around expressway junctions will increase urban coverage from 14% at present to between 33% and 43%, depending on the housing density delivered.
One of the criteria for choosing expressway routes is that they should facilitate housing on a scale and at a pace never before experienced in an equivalent area in the UK (‘unlocking land for development’). Building houses in existing cities or on brown-field sites is limited in scale and extent. An urban planning company, justifying massive, green-field development, puts it well: “In Britain’s ancient landscape the best sites for settlement have long been occupied. New locations need to be created with vigour.” Rest assured, your favourite view or favourite landscape, or that walk through the woods or by the stream, will be transformed vigorously by eager developers if we do nothing to stop the expressway.
The Climate: The UK boasts that by 2017 it had reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 43% below 1990 levels, but this was achieved mainly through switching from coal to gas for electricity; a relatively easy ‘win’. On 10th July 2019 Lord Deben, the Chair of the Govt’s Climate Change Commission, stated that only seven out of 24 climate change goals are on track, and concluded “the whole thing is really run by the government like a Dad’s Army. We can’t go on with this ramshackle system”. Greenhouse gas emissions have fallen in every energy sector, but nowhere near fast enough. The slowest decline, 3% between 1990 and 2018, has been in the transport sector, which now accounts for more GHG emissions (33% of the total) than any other energy sector. Car-based solutions to any development problem will only make matters worse. We need to shift from private to public transport if we are to reduce significantly GHG transport emissions. No current expressway plans from Highways England envisage any form of public transport. Even Private Pike can see the stupidity of that!
Our Health: air pollution is linked to multiple conditions, from asthma, to heart disease, and even psychosis. Air pollution from the proposed expressway will harm the health of children for generations to come. Electric cars don’t answer this issue yet. Public transport does.
The Economics: Highways England’s initial business case for the proposed Ox-Cam Expressway is weak. Its Benefit to Cost ratio (BCR) shows a minimal benefit of £1.10 to £1.30 return for every £1.00 invested. Even this low BCR seems to be an over-estimate, as it doesn’t allow for ‘optimism bias’, (the unfailing ability of civil servants to under-estimate costs of public works) and a possible switch of travellers from road to rail transport. What happens when the costs increase, even spiral? Government hasn’t got a great track record of delivering on time or on budget. Are there better less risky ways of investing £4-8 billion in the region’s transport systems? Yes, in East West Rail!
Electrify East West Rail instead: East West Rail (EWR) is a hugely positive step for the region and can provide a much needed, city centre to city centre public transport solution. EWR is critical for the region and should be electrified from the start, a proper 21st Century solution. The Expressway is an outdated and unnecessary 20th century solution, and it must be stopped.