E-mail to DEFRA Minister Lord Taylor proposing meeting on cleaning up our motorways
I wrote to Lord Taylor of Hobeach, the DEFRA Minister with responsibility for litter, on 15th March 2012 regarding the Coalition pledge to reduce litter. I suggested he focussed his attention on the motorways and suggested that we should meet with Mike Penning, the Minister with responsibility for the Highways Agency.
From: Peter Silverman [mailto:contact@cleanhighways.co.uk]
Sent: 15 March 2012 13:54
To: ‘ps.lord.taylorofholbeach@defra.gsi.gov.uk’
Cc: tony.poole@defra.gsi.gov.uk; Will Gates (CPRE); John Read (Clean Up Britain)
Subject: Cleaning up our motorways
Dear Lord Taylor,
I am writing to you in your capacity as Under-secretary of State for the Environment with responsibility for litter
I am a long standing anti-litter campaigner focusing on our highways. I work closely with the Campaign to Protect Rural England and Clean Up Britain. I have studied the relevant law including the Environmental Protection Act and the associated Litter Code of Practice. I have taken a number of duty bodies to court under S91 of the Environmental Protection Act including the Highways Agency, local authorities and London Underground. I have studied the relevant sections of the Highway Agency’s contracts with its maintenance service providers.
I have had meetings with the Highways Agency, one of their contractors and with Tony Poole of DEFRA. I have corresponded at length with the Department of Transport and am grateful for their patience. I have produced a must-see video.
I have written reports for Mike Penning at the Department of Transport (Our Littered Motorways), for the National Audit Office (Motorway Cleansing) and for Alan Cook at the Highways Agency (Motorway Cleaning – Management Failings at the Highways Agency). My work has been profiled in the Guardian.
I receive constant messages of support from road users frustrated at the lack of cleanliness of our major roads.
I assume you share this frustration and are looking for more ways to help fulfil the Coalition’s pledge on litter. In which case I recommend you focus your attention on the motorways in England. They are directly under the control of central government through a single agency overseen by a sympathetic minister. Before he became Under-secretary of State for Transport with responsibility for motorways Mike Penning described them as being “blighted by rubbish”. A clean-up of the network would greatly enhance the image of this country and confidence in the government. I believe this could be achieved without additional funding.
I therefore propose that we meet with Mr Penning and look at why this state of affairs has come about and how it could be remedied. I believe my work has given me useful insights into these questions which I would like to share with you.
Please note I am known to two of your colleagues in the Lords, namely Lord Krebs and Lord Burns of Pitshanger assuming he has a good memory.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Peter Silverman
(Phone number removed)
