Cut road schemes to address the deficit without harming the vulnerable
As the Labour Government seeks to make more cuts to public spending, it's more important than ever to tell them to scrap destructive and low value road schemes like the A38 expansion in their infrastructure spending review.
Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, already announced a £5bn cut to disability payments, which could leave as many as 1.2 million disabled people facing losses of thousands of pounds.
The Social Market Foundation recommends cutting road schemes as a way to address the UK's fiscal deficit without harming the most vulnerable.
Transport Action Network listed 16 Government road schemes that if cancelled could save £15 billion and prevent over 19 million tonnes of carbon worsening the climate crisis. The A38 expansion is one of these schemes.
Meanwhile road schemes have been funded despite their costs inflating.
The A50 junction scheme has doubled in price since 2021 now costing over £70 million.
The M3 Junction 9 costs have rocketed in just over two years, up by over a third, from £215m to £290m.
At no point have there been any legal challenges to delay these schemes, as the roads lobby try to blame for increasing costs. The cost increase is down to failures to predict inflation and risk.
The A38 expansion was estimated to cost about £250 million in 2019. The full business case which will calculate the updated costs is due by June 2026.
Our second legal challenge was based on the scheme being approved with out of date economic information but the court ruled the Government is entitled to do this.
The Government spending review concludes in June 2025 so how can an accurate and informed decision on the A38 be made? National Highways has refused a freedom of information request about what information they have sent to the Government about the A38 scheme for the review. We are trying to ensure they are not providing incorrect and out of date information.
If the Government needs to make budget cuts and save public money, it should not be wasting money on these overpriced, pointless, polluting and destructive road schemes.
Please email your MP to tell them to scrap the A38 and other destructive, poor value road schemes to save £15 billion and stop making cuts to that harm the most vulnerable.
Mayor says improve public transport before expanding road.
The mayor of North Yorkshire has said he will prioritise improving public transport in the region rather than campaigning for the A64 to be dualled.
Elected mayor David Skaith said "My priority is improving the bus, rail and active travel offer. Do that first, then you're left with what you need to do with the road."
Please write to the East Midlands mayor to ask her to do the same.
And sign the petition for the mayor to take buses back into public control
There's still hope to stop this destructive scheme once and for all if enough of us tell politicians to scrap it in the spending review and use public funds for social good instead.
Please keep writing and sharing this link with your network too…https://www.a38derbychaos.org/take-action
National highways has updated their website saying the legal challenge has concluded and they're starting work…don’t worry!
They are starting work on the “Full business case” which includes updating the costs of the scheme and updating surveys on all the nature they’re going to annihilate.
A freedom of information request revealed they expect to complete this by June 2026.
An investment decision is then made after the full business case (all behind closed doors).
The A38 expansion is still subject to the Government’s infrastructure spending review.
So keep writing to your political representatives to tell them to stop wasting public funds on pointless and destructive schemes like this and invest the money into public transport for Derby and the region instead.
