We STOPped the Ox-Cam Expressway!
We STOPped the Expressway!
The Government has finally listened to the chorus of voices against the proposed Oxford-Cambridge Expressway and cancelled the unwanted expressway on the 18th March 2021.
In the official announcement, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said
“Our analysis shows the expressway cannot deliver such links in a way that provides value for money for the taxpayer, so I have taken the decision to cancel the project.”
This is something that the No Expressway Group (NEG) has been saying for at least the last two years. Our own economic analysis revealed that the business case for the Expressway was even worse that the Government claimed. The official analysis failed to take into account optimism bias (the unfailing tendency of Government Departments to underestimate the cost of major schemes) and the modal shift of travellers from road to rail when given the choice (East West Rail linking the two cities will give travellers just such a choice). The first factor here underestimated the real costs and the second over-estimated the actual benefits of the Ox-Cam Expressway. The Expressway as planned would have been a tremendous waste of taxpayers’ money.
Just how much money was wasted on all the plans that Highways England prepared for the Oxford Cambridge Expressway was revealed in the answer to a question in Parliament on the 25th March from Jim McMahon MP (Lab. Oldham West and Royton), Shadow Secretary of State for Transport. Rachel Maclean MP (Cons. Redditch), Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department for Transport replied that the cost had been “approximately £28 million” and added “The analysis undertaken as part of that project is now supporting the consideration of where alternative future road investment may be needed in this area.” In other words, you design a road in one place in order to determine where other roads might go elsewhere. No, we don’t believe it either.
Welcoming the cancellation announcement on the 18th March, David Rogers, Secretary of the No Expressway Group, said “the other half of the Ox-Cam Arc proposals is the one million houses that have always been part of the Government’s ambition to increase the Arc’s economic output by £163 billion each year. Large though this increase is, investing in areas of the country away from the over-crowded South East would bring even greater economic benefits, without the need to build a million new houses and ‘import’ the workers from elsewhere in the country, or from abroad. Investment elsewhere would also reduce the inequality between the different regions of the UK; inequality which is greater than in all other countries in Europe.”
The No Expressway Group will in future address the problem of the overloading of the Ox-Cam Arc. Ox-Cam Arc housing proposals involve growth of between four and six times the projected national average increase in household numbers to 2050 – in Oxfordshire’s case doubling the housing stock of the entire county - and these will threaten the ways of life and natural environment of all the communities presently living in the Arc. Almost one quarter (23%) of those one million houses are already ear-marked for London commuters in the official plans; the final figure is likely to be even higher. Should our precious green countryside be destroyed just to house people who work 50 miles away, and do not contribute to the local economic output?
The No Expressway Group thanks all of our thousands of supporters across the Ox-Cam Arc, and their campaigning that brought about this victory for common sense on the 18th March 2021.
In the very near future you will see some name changes and a re-orientation of our campaign to the challenges ahead. We STILL need your support. Please STAY with us and help us be the architects of future developments within our communities and environments, and not the victims of some Whitehall Plan.
TV and Radio coverage of the Oxford Cambridge Expressway Cancellation
BBC TV South Oxford News on 18th March 2021, with comments from David Rogers (No Expressway Group), Greg Smith MP (Cons. Buckingham), Layla Moran MP (Lib-Dem, Oxford West and Abingdon), Neil Young (a commuter) and Phil Southall (Oxfordshire Chamber of Commerce).
ITV Meridian News on 18th March 2021, with comments from Layla Moran MP (Lib-Dem, Oxford West and Abingdon), Greg Smith MP (Cons. Buckingham), Barry Wood (Leader, Cherwell District Council) and David Rogers (No Expressway Group).
BBC Radio Oxford on 19th March 2021, with comments from David Rogers (No Expressway Group) and Matthew Stanton (Berks Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust)
