M25 – warning notice issued over litter
Alerted by David Adam’s article in the Guardian about CleanHighways’ M40 campaign James Miller from Newton Abbott has now issued his own Warning Notice the Secretary of State for Transport.
James had been appalled by the littered state of certain sections of the M25 and M3. His complaints to the Highways’ Agency’s maintenance contractor Connect Plus M25 Ltd, had got nowhere. On 5th October 2010 he therefore decided to issue a EPA Section 91 Warning Notice to Philip Hammond. It highlighted the following areas as needing urgent attention.
- M25 between junction 12 (M3) and juntion 10 (A3)
- M3 between junction 3 (beyond Kitsmead Bridge) and junction 2 (M25)
- M25 clockwise to M3 sliproad
- A3 to M25 roundabout sliproad
He has now e-mailed Connect Plus M25 Ltd asking them to provide litter cleaning statistics for the last 6 months for the section between junction 12 (M3) and junction 10 (A3).
Having received no acknowledgement of his Warning Notice of 5th October James sent progress e-mails on 28th October and 8th November. On 12th November a reply was received from the Highways Agency. This referred to the progress e-mails but made no reference to the Warning Notice. The matter, they said, is being investigated.
On 19th November after six and a half weeks the HA finally acknowledge and respond to Mr Miller’s Warning Notice. They say “…we are working hard to to try to keep our road network clean of litter… As such we do not consider the Secretary of State to be in breach of his duty”. Apparently they only have to “try” to keep the network clean.
