Responses received to the consultation M6: Giving motorists a choice

This paper provides details on and the analysis of responses received to the consultation M6: Giving Motorists a Choice, which was referred to in my statement made to Parliament today on the Government's strategy for addressing road congestion.

This consultation, which sought views on whether the Government should ask the Highways Agency to carry out more detailed development work and a feasibility study on an expressway as an alternative to widening the M6 between Birmingham and Manchester, closed on 21 October 2004.

Approximately 9,500 responses were analysed. A breakdown of the responses is shown below. These responses include those from campaigns organised by a number of bodies some of whom opposed both the expressway and widening

The proposal attracted a range of views from those supporting a speedy delivery of additional capacity to those opposed to any construction, even the proposed widening. Views expressed by representative groups, varied from either directly supporting the expressway concept or opposed it, to offering a range of comments.

In order to properly summarise views, each response was considered and logged on to a database. Responses were received by email, letter, postcard and petition. Following an initial analysis of responses, a coding frame was designed so that similar comments could be aggregated. As further responses were received, the coding frame was improved. Many responses were coded individually, but some standardised campaign correspondence was counted as a block and hence some individual written in comments may not have been processed and some duplicate responses double-counted. However, this is unlikely to have affected the overall outcome.

Minister of State for Transport

19 July 2005

Summary of responses

Opinions	Correspondence including campaigns	Petitions	Total
Those against expressway only	4718	146	4864
Those against both expressway & widening	1309	3054	4363
Those against expressway but in favour of widening	86	0	86
In favour of expressway	106	0	106
In favour of expressway but against tolling	15	0	15
No clear opinion	94	0	94
Total responses analysed			9528

Of the total responses received, over 4000 were campaign or other form letters.

Breakdown of responses by respondent groups

	Those against Expressway only	Those against both Expressway & widening	Those against Expressway but in favour of widening	In favour of Expressway	In favour of Expressway but against tolling	No clear opinion	Total
Anti -tolling					1		1
Construction industry				6		1	7
Disabled	1			1			2
Environmental group	122	33				1	156
General public including campaigns	4547	1198	73	69	11	63	5961
General public - Petition	146	3054					3200
Haulage industry				2	2		4
Local representatives -individuals and bodies	26	19	10	2		21	78
Motoring organisation				6	1		7
Members of the Houses of Parliament	4			3			7
Social campaigning Organisation	12	54	2	2		1	71
Others	6	5	1	15		7	34
Total	4864	4363	86	106	15	94	9528

Responses received to the consultation M6: Giving motorists a choice

Summary of responses

Breakdown of responses by respondent groups

Consultations

Department for Transport

Transport agencies

Transport bodies

UK Government

Key