Better Transport

When you are campaigning to stop a road from being built, you need to know where to focus your energies. Your targets are the people who have the power over the decisions you’re trying to influence.

Government and the Department for Transport
The ultimate decision to proceed with a road scheme is taken by the Secretary of State for Transport, currently Ruth Kelly. However the Secretary of State also has two Ministers of State under her who can also be involved in decision making, Tom Harris, responsible for the Highways Agency, trunk roads and motorways, and Rosie Winterton, responsible for local roads. The ministers are advised in their decision making by a vast array of civil servants in the Department for Transport.

The Highways Agency
The Highways Agency is an executive agency of the Department for Transport, and has responsibility for the core trunk road and motorway network. Staff at the agency do not make decisions about road, although they are very influential in advising the Transport Minister. Try not to get distracted by lobbying the Highways Agency; keep your attention focused on the politicians.

Regional Government Offices
Each Government department has civil servants in regional government offices in the English regions. They will advise the civil servants in London, who in turn will advise the ministers.
Regional Government offices
Regional assemblies, regional development agencies and regional funding allocations
Regional assemblies draw up a 10-year funding priority list for transport schemes, and this list includes all local authority roads and the regionally, not nationally, significant Highways Agency schemes. If a scheme is prioritised by the regional assembly in its regional funding allocation, there is a strong likelihood that the Department for Transport will give it the go-ahead. The regional development agencies are Government agencies that promote economic development in their region. They are becoming increasingly more important and influential, and will be leading the regional funding allocation prioritisation of transport schemes in 2008-9.  
The regional assemblies
The regional development agenciesThe current regional funding allocations

Statutory Environmental Bodies
The Government has several independent environmental watchdogs, known as statutory environmental bodies, which comment on road schemes:

• Natural England, which focuses on landscape and biodiversity issues
• The Environment Agency, which is concerned with flooding, rivers, air pollution and climate change
• English Heritage, concerned with heritage issues

Local authorities
Local authorities make the initial decision to proceed with a local road scheme, so in the early days it is essential to lobby them, and try and persuade councillors not to vote for it. However, once the decision has been made by the council to proceed with the road, your attention should then switch to the Government because the council will still have to seek funding and approval from the Government, with the minister making the final decision.

The local authority making road decisions is either the county council or the unitary authority. District councils do not make decisions about road schemes but they may lobby their county councils and their support for or opposition to a road scheme can be an incredibly important factor so find out where they stand.
Find your local authority