M1 Widening in Notts Looms

The widening scheme has suffered delay and controversy, but has now arrived on our doorstep. Projected costs for the whole scheme have already escalated to £5.1 billion, or £43 million per mile. Each metre of widening will cost the same as installing solar panels on 2 houses.

Two construction compounds have been established, on Long Lane (between Hucknall and Watnall) and at Junction 27. Preparatory tree felling and vegetation clearing is underway, as are bridge works at Nuthall. The main work of ‘Contract 1’ (J25 – J28) is planned to start early in the new year.

Climate change hypocrisy
Only a week ago Gordon Brown was claiming that he wants to up our carbon reductions target to 80% by 2050. And yet the bulldozers are moving in on the motorway. (And the government announce the same week that they support a third runway at Heathrow.) Who do they think they are kidding?

The HA predict that traffic will increase by 42% between junctions 21 and 30 if the motorway is widened. One HA leaflet admitted that CO2 emissions would rise as a result, but reassured readers that this would “have no direct effect on local people”. Well that’s nice to know. I guess they think were safe because the motorway is 100 metres above sea level!

Road transport accounted for 25.7% of UK CO2 emissions by 2005, and is still rising. (see
 http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/tsgb/2007edition/section3energyenvironment.pdf)

The Economic Argument
The HA put lots of emphasis on the economic ‘benefits’ of widening for the region – supporting ‘regeneration’. They fail to mention that the out of town developments that spring up around motorway junctions can actually increase social and economic exclusion. This is because the employment and training opportunities that they create may actually be drawn there at the expense of deprived inner city areas, and those people living in them without cars. But even in purely economic terms these arguments have been discredited. The largest study of its kind into the impact of transport on the economy published in 1999 (by the Standing Advisory Committee on Trunk Road Assessment) concluded that roadbuilding did not necessarily aid the economy. And the transport study by Sir Rod Eddington in November 2006 also said that in mature economies there is “considerably less scope” for large-scale transport improvements to deliver economic growth than there was in the past. (see  http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/media/press_releases/november_2007/rac_poll )

Local Environmental Impacts
Much of the M1 in our area runs very close to important areas for nature. Bats, great crested newts (both protected), freshwater crayfish and other important species are present in the woods and watercourses around and about. The HA’s environmental statement was woefully lacking in detail, and didn’t even consider such fundamental things as the dumping of removed material, the quarrying of construction materials, and the movements of heavy lorries to transport these.

The construction compound at Long Lane is only 500 metres away from Bulwell Wood, which is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest, and an Ancient Woodland. On the edge of this, immediately downhill of the compound, rises the stream that runs down through Blenheim into Bulwell and the river Lean.

Local Health Concerns
Air quality will suffer and noise pollution will be worsened as a result of the widening. Mourners at Nuthall cemetery requested at the ‘consultation’ that a noise barrier be erected between the cemetery and the motorway, which is less than 200 metres away. They were told in August that this would be denied, as “there is no legislative mechanism in place”!

Medical science learns more and more about the dangers of living near major roads. In January 2007 The Lancet published a study showing that children who grew up within 500 metres of a major road had significantly reduced lung capacity.

Campaigns
A number of locality based groups sprang up to oppose the widening of the M1, all the way from Luton to Leeds, and grouped together as the No Widening M1 Alliance. Pre-exisiting climate change and environmental campaigners from a variety of groups and persuasions have also been involved. Several successful events and public awareness raising activities have been organised. Many of the HA’s exhibitions and ‘consultation’ meetings have been leafleted and vocally opposed. Campaigners have engaged in the media debate, and have kept the opposing view clearly in the public eye. Petitions have been raised and innumerable postcards and letter sent to ministers. A coordinated banner drop over motorway bridges from Luton to Leeds (three in Notts!) late last year attracted extensive TV coverage.

The public are not easily fooled. 65% of callers to a BBC Radio Nottingham phone in poll were against the widening. The HA has not dared to publish any detailed summary of the 686 responses to the ‘consultation’ on J25 – 28.

Protest and publicity events at the roadside have been met with a very heavy handed response from the police. In April 2007 eight people were arrested near the motorway in South Yorkshire, and held for up to 18 hours. Their homes were searched and property including computers and diaries was seized. Punitive police bail conditions were imposed – they were forbidden from communicating with one another (even though 2 of them were a couple!). The eight have still not been charged 7 months later, though still have to keep going back to the police station to answer bail. It makes you wonder who pulls the police’s strings (if you didn’t already), and how fearful they are of a resurgence in road protests. Maybe the campaigners are onto something?

This could be a long running issue and a long running campaign. The motorway is divided up into many different projects and contracts, with contract 2 concerning the remaining stretches between junctions 21 to 30 not due to commence construction until 2012, and not to complete until 2019. Meanwhile the whole context is changing. Oil prices are rising, and so are construction costs, not to mention sea levels. There may be compromises available for the government, if we can’t force them to back down all the way (or indeed dispense with them). Hard shoulder running is under consideration (‘Active Traffic Management’) as tried on the M42, and a report is due to be published in the spring. Whilst this would still represent an unwelcome increase in capacity, it would save a lot of concrete pouring, and involves a speed reduction to 50mph, which in turn brings CO2 savings.

There may be many battles along the way, and we may not win them all. Further North (around junction 30) and further South (around Luton) the concrete and tarmac merchants have already done their worst. But they know there is fierce opposition here, and in Notts they haven’t yet made it an inch wider.

Who knows what the world will look like in 2019?


LINKS:  http://www.nowideningm1.org.uk/
 http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/home

PREVIOUSLY ON INDYMEDIA:
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2006/10/354723.html
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2007/03/366214.html

CONTACT THE CAMPAIGN:
 info@nowideningm1.org.uk