CAMPAIGNERS concerned about the impact of the planned Lower Thames Crossing have called on the government to review and reconsider the whole scheme in the wake of so many changes to the original concept.

The message was issued after National Highways, the government agency behind the planned route to link north Kent with the M25 via a new Thames Tunnel and a highway ploughed through the heart of Thurrock, announced yet more consultations on the £8.2bn project which has been mired in controversy almost since day one of its conception.

Over recent years National Highways and its predecessor organisations have launched many consultations on changes to its plans – but have largely discarded many of the objections that originate in Thurrock – where the Thames Crossing action group is based.

The group now believes it is time to go back virtually to the beginning of project and re-examine the reasons for its being and how it might proceed in the future.

Under government statute on major infrastructure projects, there is a procedure to look again at the overarching concepts behind a plan.

In this case the group thinks enough change has happened nationally and even globally, as well as the significant switches to what is planned locally for the Thames Crossing, to merit the government's whole £24bn RIS2 road programme to be re-opened and re-examined.

RIS2 is the Government's second road investment strategy, and includes the Lower Thames Crossing. A section of National Highways Licence, which Government uses to set out the Secretary of State's statutory directions and guidance to National Highways states that if there are "Major variations, which would affect the Licence holder's overall funding, have a material effect on the integrity of the RIS or otherwise compromise the Licence holder's ability to comply with the RIS, would require the RIS to be re-opened."

The action group now believes that point has been reached and have written to Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps calling for him to re-open RIS2. They have listed the following reasons why:

• The RIS2 budget was reduced hugely by £3.4bn in the 2021 Spending Review.
• The 18 month delay to the proposed LTC (which is £8.2bn out of the £14.7bn RIS2 capital enhancements budget).
• Failure to progress the LTC was defined as an "existential threat" to National Highways in their Annual Report 2021.
• 'Smart' Motorways make up a large section of RIS2 and have been paused whilst 5 years of safety data is collected and analysed.
• The National Policy Statement that governs the RIS2 projects decision making process is being reviewed, and is not compliant with UK climate law.
• The increasing importance of UK Food Security and RIS2 would destroy so much agricultural land.
• New legal levels on air pollution are due to be enshrined into UK law by the end of Oct this year.

National Highways' Annual Report and Accounts 2021 states that they consider the delivery risk assessment if the LTC is not promoted successfully to be "extreme" and "likely", defining this as an "existential risk" to National Highways. Chair of Thames Crossing Action Group Laura Blake, says: "There are so many reasons, as highlighted in our letter to the Secretary of State why the £24bn RIS2 roads programme should be re-opened and reviewed. "National Highways consider the failure to progress the Lopwer Thames Crossing as an "extreme" and "likely" risk, and even an "existential threat" to National Highways itself. Given the 18-month delays and the scale of this high-risk scheme, the Secretary of State must surely consider it essential to re-open RIS2 for full review and consideration. "The Lower Thames Crossing is obviously a project that the Secretary of State inherited from his predecessor, and we hope that given its risk, harms and cost he will thoroughly review it as part of the re-opening of RIS2."