Transport Minister Grant Shapps has admitted that he acted unlawfully when he approved the A38 Derby Junctions road scheme in January. The High Court will now quash the planning permission for the scheme.

Highways England, which is responsible for the road, has never counted the number of trees it is condemning, so Mr Beavis, who lives in Derby, decided to visit the areas affected and work it out for himself. He set out 20 square metre grids at various places along the route, counted the number of trees in the grid, then scaled up to the total area and calculated that around 100,000 would be chopped down.

A member of a Derby campaign group is seeking a judicial review of the decision by Grant Shapps to give the go ahead for the A38 Derby Junctions road scheme, despite several misgivings by the Planning Inspectorate related to climate change issues.

In the March 2020 Budget the Government, announced its ‘largest ever’ roads programme, RIS2 (which includes the £250 million A38 in Derby).