National Highways accused of overreach

Transport Action Network (TAN) has filed a formal complaint to the regulator of National Highways, the Office of Rail & Road (ORR), about National Highways’ attempts to influence the decision making process for the Lower Thames Crossing.

Transport secretary Louise Haigh has until this Friday, 4^th October 2024, to decide whether to grant the development consent order (DCO) for the £9bn scheme, or to postpone it.

National Highways paid for a parliamentary reception for Lower Thames Crossing on 5^th  September, a standard method of seeking to sway the political process.

TAN asserts that this is “attempting to interfere with and undermine the democratic decision making process for the Lower Thames Crossing DCO”.

It says that a government-owned company should not be using public funds to lobby government in pursuit of its own aims. Its duty is to do as directed by government, not to interfere with the decision-making process.

TAN also accuses National Highways of  making “unsubstantiated, unevidenced and misleading claims” in its publicity material for the project. [Further details of this claim are in TAN’s letter to ORR chief executive John Larkinson.]

Chris Todd, director of Transport Action Network, said: “This outrageous behaviour by National Highways smacks of desperation. It must realise that, while things are bad at Dartford, it’s so called solution simply does not add up. If it did, there would be no reason for it to resort to its fantasy economics. It would not need to be plucking figures out of thin air to try and bolster its case.

“As a government company it is wasting public funds trying to influence the decision. We believe that this is an abuse of its position and are asking ORR to look into this. We’re also calling for National Highways to be forced to publish its assumptions and workings behind its economic case, not just for the Lower Thames Crossing, but for all schemes. All too often it is keeping this information secret and subverting the democratic scrutiny of its proposals.”

National Highways has been asked to comment.