Transport Action Network (TAN) has filed a formal complaint to the regulator of National Highways, the Office of Rail & Road (ORR), about National Highways鈥� attempts to influence the decision making process for the Lower Thames Crossing.
Transport secretary Louise Haigh has until this Friday, 4th October 2024, to decide whether to grant the development consent order (DCO) for the 拢9bn scheme, or to postpone it.
National Highways paid for a parliamentary reception for Lower Thames Crossing on 5th 聽September, a standard method of seeking to sway the political process.
TAN asserts that this is 鈥渁ttempting to interfere with and undermine the democratic decision making process for the Lower Thames Crossing DCO鈥�.
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 聽making 鈥渦nsubstantiated, unevidenced and misleading claims鈥� in its publicity material for the project.
Chris Todd, director of Transport Action Network, said: 鈥淭his outrageous behaviour by National Highways smacks of desperation. It must realise that, while things are bad at Dartford, it鈥檚 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.
鈥淎s 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鈥檙e 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.鈥�
A spokesperson for National Highways said: 鈥淭he proposals for the Lower Thames Crossing have been thoroughly scrutinised through the statutory planning process, which included a robust and detailed six-month examination by a聽panel of independent planning inspectors.鈥�
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