A LEADING light in the campaign to oppose - or at the very least mediate the impact of the planned Lower Thames Crossing that would carve a route through the heart of Thurrock - has welcomed a public hearing currently underway and praised fellow campaigners who have funded a legal challenge to the government's road investment strategy.

A hearing that starts today (Monday, 28 June) and will last for two days, has been brought about because the Transport Action Network (TAN) campaign says transport minister Grant Shapps, broke the law when law when he gave the green light to the governments future plans without giving adequate thought to the impact on the environment.

The government laid out its long term strategy in early 2020 and detailed 50 major road projects including the Lower Thames Crossing which is projected to cost £8.2billion. Campaigners say the government discarded parts of their plans that included setting targets to reduce carbon emissions.

The Lower Thames Crossing – a 14-mile route connecting the M2 in Kent with the M25 north of South Ockendon is the largest of the projects included in the government strategy. Critics say the project will create more than five million tonnes of carbon emissions.

They say that it is wrong that trying to mitigate the environmental impact was not written in stone as part of the planning, though that view will be strongly contested by government lawyers who will tell the High Couirt hearing that climate commitments are not "obviously material" to road-building.

One of the counter arguments from campaigners is that Mr Shapps himself said that "climate change is the most pressing environmental challenge of our time" and this meant we need to 'use our cars less in future'.

Laura Blake, chair of Thames Crossing Action Group said: "We know that the proposed Lower Thames Crossing would create more than five million tonnes of carbon emissions, along with all the other negative impacts which we would suffer if the crossing were to go ahead.

"We have many serious concerns about the impacts of the proposed Lower Thames Crossing, and feel it is essential that all the negative impacts of the scheme should be taken into account.

"We are grateful to TAN for bringing this legal challenge. We wholeheartedly support this legal challenge, the biggest legal challenge to transport policy in British history, and appreciate all the hard work by TAN and the legal team."

TAN's director Chris Todd says: "Trying to argue climate change isn't 'obviously material' to approving the largest ever roads programme is like saying public health is not relevant to reform of smoking rules. In an audacious attempt to protect his addiction to asphalt, Shapps is now seeking a legal precedent that decision-makers can ignore climate targets.

"This puts ministers on a collision course with the Climate Change Committee, which last week called on the Government to adopt a "net zero test" for all policy decisions. The Department for Transport's dodgy defence now risks undermining UK leadership of the COP26 climate summit and our international standing.

TAN argue the impact to the environment in terms of carbon emissions would be 100 times greater than the government claimed.

The group suggests DfT only considered five of the schemes rather than the whole programme of more than 50, miscalculated carbon emissions by using a period when not all five were open and ignored non-tailpipe emissions from land clearance and construction phases.

Mr Todd added: "If we are serious about tackling the climate emergency, improving quality of life after the pandemic and delivering a less congested future, we need to reduce traffic.