M6 Widening

For some time the Government has been pursuing proposals to widen the M6 in Staffordshire and Cheshire (From Junction 11a to Junction 19) to four lanes.
This would have a larger impact on the countryside and people already living with the motorway, but it would also lead to increased commuting, longer journeys and encourage more people to move out of our cities into the countryside contrary to our Regional Spatial Strategy.

This follows a report in 2002 (West Midlands to North West Multi-Modal Study - Midman) which recommended widening the motorway, putting a modest toll on it and investing in public transport.

However, the Government is only pursuing part of that approach. So even the Government’s own consultants admit that widening on it owns would not solve the problems.

The Midman report also said that widening would increase carbon dioxide emissions, adding to the impacts of Climate Change.

Moreover, the cost of widening has increased in that time from £670 million to £3 billion. making it the countries most expensive current road proposal. If the half of that money dedicated to widening the motorway in our region was diverted to public transport it could dramatically improve our bus network or provide several new metro lines which would be better for the environment and more consistent with the spatial policies we are pursuing.

And if national road pricing was introduced, the Midman analysis suggests a toll of 10p per mile on the motorway would reduce traffic enough that widening wasn’t needed. Government could be spending £3 billion for nothing!

So we believe this proposal should be scrapped and the money diverted to more sensible uses which improve transport, reduce climate change and supported our Spatial Strategy.
The Highways Agency has been developing business plan to support the widening proposals. CPRE regionally and nationally, working with a group of other organisations, decided to fund Professor Phil Goodwin, an eminent transport specialist, to examine in due course whether the business case stands up and whether it takes proper account of environmental impacts and to submit his findings to Government Ministers. We issued a press release.

However the business case has been delayed several times and in 2007 the Government announced that it would be considering Active Traffic Management (ATM) as an alternative to widening of some motorways, although we have yet to be certain whether this will include the M6. CPRE has welcomed this approach but remains concerned that ATM is only as stop-gap and wants to see a commitment to reduce traffic overall. You can read our press release.

Additional M6 downloads later

16.02.08