Letter: Grant Shapps Has Driven a Coach and Horses Through the M25 Junction 10 Environment

Published on: 29 Jun, 2022
Updated on: 20 Aug, 2022

From: Chris Campbell

Member of the Surrey Amphibian and Reptile Group (SARG)

In response to: Project Team “Disappointed” With SoS Decision To Slash M25 J10 Environmental Mitigation

How can it be that the National Highways (NH) website still shows the original 40 hectares of “Replacement Land” recommended by NH and other parties being provided?

Is this not misrepresentation of the highest order? It certainly looks like either blatant greenwashing or incompetence to give incorrect information to the public NH serves.

Screenshot taken on June 29 of the National Highways M25 J10 website still saying 40 hectares of replacement land. Click on the image to enlarge.

Grant Shapps has driven a coach and horses through the environmental planning weeks ago when he reduced 40 hectares to just 14, announced on May 12 when he gave the Development Consent Order (DCO) to go ahead with the scheme.

This was the first most people knew of this and, if you looked closely, was shown within the 59 pages of his DCO letter which reached very, very few people and was effectively announced as a done deal.

One of his reasons given was to say he was matching the 1:1 replacement policy used when the M25 was first built around 1982 for this section.

Have we learnt nothing in those forty years or are we just accepting that the ignorance we had then is good enough to form a precedent to repeat now whilst ignoring the environmental emergencies we (nearly) all recognize we are facing?

The Dragon asked National Highways for a response but none was received.