Tag: m25

• Charity takes £10m hit from shambolic road scheme

  National Highways has given the RHS a paltry £2.3m by way of compensation for the damage to business at Wisley Gardens from its shambolic M25 Junction 10 scheme, which the RHS estimates to have cost it £13m.

  It’s a story I have covered extensively over the last few years and it’s clear that the government-owned company deliberately underestimated the impact of the scheme on traffic from the outset, with completely unrealistic forecasts that were contrived to make it look better value for money.

  Now, the BBC reports:

  The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has said compensation for disruption caused by a major road building project is “far short” of the amount it lost.
  
  The £2.3m secured in a settlement from National Highways was not sufficient, the RHS said, to compensate for the disruption at its Wisley site, which it says caused £13m losses and led to 350,000 fewer visitors annually.

  

  So the RHS – a charity – takes a £10m hit from a scheme that will encourage traffic and National Highways says “tough”, or rather:

  that it was not legally required to compensate any loses from traffic congestion.

  Of course the scheme affected way more people than Wisley visitors. In February 2024, I reported for Highways magazine:

  (more…)

  2026.10.07

• National Highways steps up the greenwashing

  There’s another closure of the A3 this weekend as part of National Highways’ seemingly interminable M25 Junction 10 scheme.

  I’ve written a lot about the disruption caused by the works and once again the closure, this time between the junction and Send to the south, has diversions that involve using the M25 and a longer diversion for vehicles and drivers that are not permitted to use the motorway.

  

  But what’s most egregious about this is the astonishingly blatant greenwashing. According to the BBC:

  A National Highways spokesperson said: “We are restoring heathland and upgrading the junction with the A3 Wisley Interchange to reduce congestion, improve safety and create more reliable journeys.

  “We thank drivers and the local community for their patience and ask anyone travelling during these times to plan their journeys carefully.”

  National Highways is cutting down a lot of trees as part of a road widening scheme that will encourage more traffic and worsen climate change. Some of the land currently covered by trees will indeed be returned to heathland but to present this as the primary reason for the scheme is outrageous.

  And there is of course the usual trick, which rail companies also do during disruption, of transferring responsibility to the public by asking them to plan or check their journeys.

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  2025.08.01