Road plan offers south-east a 'bleak future'

With plans for a second M25 beginning to emerge, an independent watchdog has warned that the south-east of England faces a "bleak future" of massive over development that could turn the region into the Los Angeles of Europe.

According to Transport 2000's report launched today, 'The Threat of a Second M25: The South-east as the Los Angeles of Europe', pressure is building for a new Lower Thames Crossing – which could act as the trigger for a new Outer Orbital strategic route around London, the group claims.

Transport 200 says that the Lower Thames Crossing would link up with a series of other road schemes (implemented or planned) to create a new route to Chelmsford and Stansted. From there the Outer M25 could take the route of other proposed schemes (including bypasses for Luton and Dunstable), and then pressure would "inevitably grow" to revive the full Outer Orbital proposals that last emerged in the Conservative Government’s Roads for Prosperity programme in the 1990s.

The report shows deals with how the second M25 could act as a catalyst for wider plans in the region for massive expansion in housing, airports, ports, traffic and road building.

Transport 200 predicts a third more road traffic by 2016, a doubling of air travel by 2020 (including possible expansion of Stansted), and hundreds of thousands of new homes by 2031.

Report author transport consultant Jonathan Bray said: “The cumulative impact of the numerous disparate pseudo-strategies for housing and transport will mean a future of concrete and tyres: a future more like Los Angeles than the garden of England.”

Transport 2000 is the independent national body concerned with sustainable transport. It looks for answers to transport problems and aims to reduce the environmental and social impact of transport by encouraging less use of cars and more use of public transport, walking and cycling.

Transport 2000's vision is of a country where traffic no longer dominates our lives, where many of our journeys can be made on foot, by cycle or using public transport and where you don't need a car to enjoy the countryside or city life.

(GMcG)