15.3.07: Rising Costs – Link Road- Bad Value For Money And Bad For The Environment

A report out today by the National Audit Office has criticised local authorities, the Highways Agency and the government for underestimating the costs of road schemes. TSLM says the report shows that road schemes are bad value for money and bad for the environment. TSLM warns that the costs of the £137 million Heysham M6 Link road scheme could rise further, and calls for it to be scrapped and cheaper more sustainable solutions to be implemented instead.

The year-long investigation by the NAO was triggered as costs of road schemes had spiralled out of control since they were first approved. In July 2006 the Transport Select Committee accused the Highways Agency of “losing budgetary control” of its programme . A five year forecast by the construction industry’s Building Cost Information Service (BCIS) in August 2006 predicted construction inflation will run at 33 per cent, whilst background inflation will increase by 12 per cent over the same five year period.

Today’s report says “The latest local authority forecasts indicate that costs will increase further with the final cost likely to be 31 per cent more than the initial estimates.”

TSLM said the massive dual carriageway Northern route had been approved at £87.7 million in 2005, but the last known estimate of the cost was £137 million. They said this was because Lancashire County Council had underestimated costs in order to get their foot in the door of funding approval. They warned that the costs were likely to increase further still given that this figure does not include changes to the original plan.

David Gate chair of TSLM said:

“Building the Northern route would be very expensive; it does not even deal with our districts transport problems, and is not the sustainable option either. It is impossible to get the latest cost estimate from LCC.

Thankfully the scheme has not yet even been admitted into the Government’s funding programme. There are many cheaper and less damaging alternatives to the Link road scheme. We should be investing in better public transport, and making walking and cycling more attractive. The Northern route is bad value for money, bad for the environment and a disaster for our district. As taxpayers we all pay the price for road building, and future generations will pay the price with a degraded environment, and climate change. We call on the government to scrap the Northern route scheme and invest now in sustainable solutions.”