On 30th July, new Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh, released a statement advising that the previous Conservatives administration "has left a £22 billion public spending gap this year alone – £2.9bn of which is unfunded transport commitments."
It followed decisions to cancel the A303 Stonehenge Tunnel and the A27 Arundel Bypass as a cost-saving exercise, announced in parliament the previous day by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
Louise Haigh went on to say:
"In recent weeks, the gap between promised schemes and the money available to deliver them has been made clear to me. There has been a lack of openness with the public about the status of schemes - some of which were cancelled or paused by the previous government, without proper communication to the public."
The A5036 Port of Liverpool Access Scheme was paused in March 2023, and pushed back to a group of road projects known collectively as "RIS3" which are due to commence in April 2025.
The Transport Secretary then confirmed:
"I am commissioning an internal review of DfT’s capital spend portfolio. We will bring in external expertise and move quickly to make recommendations about current and future schemes."
With this as the backdrop, we have written to the Transport Secretary, requesting that The Port of Liverpool Access Road is cancelled - saving hundreds of millions of pounds from the roads budget - and calling for her Department to lead a fresh approach to addressing the problems the Port of Liverpool's unchecked growth has caused for our communities in South Sefton.
We have seen Louise Haigh speak on many occasions. She is impressive, people-focussed and works closely with the Metro Mayors, including Steve Rotheram, who are demanding ever-increasing powers over transport decisions in their regions.
We therefore hold out a lot of hope that, under her leadership, the Department for Transport won't simply sit back and endorse destructive road schemes proposed by National Highways.
Rather, it will listen to the views of local and regional politicians - and the communities they were elected to represent - in delivering truly sustainable infrastructure projects which respect our health & wellbeing and our environment.
You can read our letter in full below:
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