The Government responded to our legal challenge…

Written By Guest User

Thank you so much for all the support for our second legal challenge. In this update we have news on our legal challenge and Rishi Sunak’s climate u-turns may have implications to strengthen our case.


Preparing for court

So we sent our pre-action protocol letter with the new legal challenge grounds on the 4th September. The Government responded today and we are now consulting with our legal team to prepare to file court papers and apply to the court to take this to trial.

The Government and National Highways both responded to deny all our legal challenge grounds and basically say the Secretary of State (SoS) for Transport’s decision is fine (even though the last SoS made an unlawful decision to approve the A38 expansion). 

They also disagreed with the last legal challenge (which later the Government conceded to) and consistently dismissed concerns about carbon emissions, biodiversity, air quality and climate raised during the examination process. 

Ultimately it will be for a judge at the High Court to decide but we know approving this road scheme was the wrong decision and the negative impacts to local residents, nature and climate outweigh any benefits (profits) to developers who want the A38 to have additional road capacity to open up the surrounding areas to a minimum of 11,000 developments. 

To bring our legal challenge, we need your help. Please keep sharing the legal challenge and spreading the word. Any donation, whether big or small, will help us fight for a liveable planet and hold our Government to account over their destruction of the environment.


UK government’s climate U-turns put legally binding targets in jeopardy

This week Rishi Sunak announced u-turns on key net zero pledges and scrapping of policies that were never proposed (seven bins and meat tax!? ). In the last few months this Government has licensed hundreds of new oil and gas projects, pushed through destructive road schemes, climate wrecking coal mines, polluting airport expansions and are now trying to roll back net zero pledges for the benefit of the fossil fuel industry and landlords who don’t want to insulate rental properties. 

Some of our second legal challenge grounds are based on how the Government is not on track to meet legally binding carbon budget targets. 

The Government are trying to argue that the carbon emissions from the A38 expansion won't matter and they will meet the targets...but without providing any evidence to show how and where these emission reductions will be made and while ignoring the overwhelming evidence that the UK is not on track to meet these targets. 

Analysis by carbon brief shows the aggregated emissions savings from policies which are now at risk as a result of Sunak’s climate policy rollbacks. 

"The rollbacks include delays to bans on the sale of new fossil-fueled cars and boilers, both key planks of the government’s strategy for reaching its climate targets.

These rollbacks would create an increasingly large gap between where the UK’s emissions are heading and where they are supposed to go, Carbon Brief analysis shows.

As such, the UK’s legally binding emissions targets, as well as its international pledge under the Paris Agreement, could be put out of reach."

The Good Law project is already challenging these rollbacks in addition to their second net zero legal challenge. 

Global temperatures have risen by 1.2C. We have had the warmest northern hemisphere summer ever recorded. Antarctic sea ice has not expanded during the winter months. Extreme weather events have occurred all around the world including heatwaves, wildfires, storms and floods. In the UK we had seven consecutive days with temperatures over 30C. All of these are set to get worse as El Niño intensifies this winter. In the face of all the scientific evidence and the human suffering caused by climate breakdown, Sunak is weakening his government’s key climate commitments and bulldozing through climate and nature wrecking developments. 

This rolling back on emissions cuts will undermine the transition to net zero and with it the future opportunities, prosperity and safety of the entire country.

If the Government won’t do the right thing to protect humanity from climate breakdown, we will have to try and use the law to force them to. Please help us by continuing to support our legal challenge. 


If you live near Derby…

Come along to a public discussion on "How can Derby City Council tackle the climate crisis?" There will be a section on the A38 expansion. 

Tue, Oct 3 • 19:00 at St Peter's Churchyard St Peter's Street, Derby, DE1 1NN

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-can-derby-city-council-tackle-the-climate-crisis-tickets-719263806407 


Many thanks for your continued support,

The Stop the A38 Expansion Campaign group 


Guest User
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Exaggerated economic benefits of the A38 expansion

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Five reasons the A38 expansion is still unlawful