End of road for appeal over environmental impact of A428 improvements

The Court of Appeal has refused a campaign group's appeal of a refusal of permission for a judicial review of the Secretary of State's decision to approve the construction of a ten-mile stretch of road.

Transport Action Network (TAN) had argued that the construction of the ten-mile dual carriageway between Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire would be "one of the biggest emitters of carbon" in the Government's roads investment strategy for 2020 to 2025, undermining local and regional efforts to tackle climate change.

It also argued that the works would lead to a large loss in hedgerow biodiversity and affect a number of important species.

The legal challenge was aimed at the Secretary of State's decision to approve a Development Consent Order (DCO) for the project.

More than £10,000 was raised on a crowdfunding platform in order to fund the legal claim, but following the Court of Appeal's refusal, TAN has confirmed it will now drop its claim.

As a result, National Highways is now poised to begin construction. The scheme is expected to open to traffic in 2027. 

In February, MPs on the Transport Committee questioned National Highways over delays and "multi-billion" overspends in delivering the strategic road investment plan, which the A428 improvements are part of.

This followed a National Audit Office report which said the Department for Transport and National Highways could have done more to manage potential risks to the RIS2 portfolio, such as inflationary pressures and obtaining planning consent from national planning inspectors following legal challenges.

Adam Carey