A1(M) Action

Construction of the A1(M) motorway is part of the long term strategy to transform the A1 trunk road into a motorway from the M25 to Newcastle. Well over £1.5b (1994 prices) will be spent on what has been described by the construction industry as ‘England’s greatest road widening project’. Parts of the A1 are already motorway. The section between Alconbury and Peterborough, when completed will be one of the first DBFO (Design Build Finance and Operate aka Destroy, Bum, Fell and Obliterate) roads. A consortium of contractors, Road Management Services (RMS) will finance the project through a loan from the European Investment Bank. RMS will then recover their costs through ‘shadow tolls’. The A1 is also part of the European TEN (Trans-European Network) transport schemes, a collection of road, rail and waterway strategic routes which are the core projects of the European Union. These are supposed to improve the flow of people and goods in Europe and thus create jobs and regional development. The economic arguments which say that regional economies will benefit from TENs are acutely flawed, and need to be challenged.

On Thursday 16th May twenty five activists from a coalition of campaign groups descended on Alconbury, near Huntingdon and stopped work on one of the sites where construction of the A1(M) motorway between Alconbury and Peterborough has just begun. There were no security guards, so access to the site was easy, and the workmen were completely taken by surprise. Work was stopped for most of the day on a one mile section of the route, where heavy earth moving equipment was preparing the land for part of the thirteen mile section of motorway. As one digger after another stopped working, and activists moved along the work site, all the massive earth movers suddenly parked neatly in a line as if to a pre-arranged signal! The action was to highlight the madness of this, one of the country’s first privatised roads. A spokesman for the contractors said that there had been a ‘small delay’ of three hours to the work, although we arrived at 10.30am and departed at around 4.00pm! The police arrived, but no arrests were made.

Further actions are planned. For the latest info update and up and coming actions phone 01767 692326.