FoE warns T.House shareholders over toll road 'albatross'

Environmentalists are urging the European Investment Bank (EIB) not to back Trafalgar House's proposed œ300 million Birmingham Northern Relief Road (BNRR) - Britain's first and only tolled motorway.

Friends of the Earth (FoE) has launched the campaign following confirmation at TH's annual general meeting in London that it was discussing loan funding with the EIB for the 27 mile toll road, which is intended to relieve congestion on the M6.

The FoE claims that the scheme does not merit a loan on the grounds that it is environmentally unfriendly and a potential loss maker since the Government's decision last year not to toll the planned Birmingham Western Orbital Motorway.

FoE lobbied shareholders at the AGM to veto the scheme. It handed out leaflets warning shareholders that the toll free Western Orbital along with new planning guidance, changes in the forecast traffic levels and a lack of political support would make the scheme a loser.

'When TH first got involved, the BNRR must have looked like the goose that laid the golden egg. Now it has become an albatross around its neck,' said FoE campaigner Roger Higman.

TH's corporate development chairman John Fletcher replied that the company believed 'the scheme would in time be very profitable.'