Courting confusion
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THE ANTI-ROAD lobby received a boost this week when Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls over-ruled a decision to go-ahead with the building of two proposed motorway sections on the outskirts of Birmingham.
In a Court of Appeal judgement Lord Denning recommended that the public inquiry into the motorway schemes for sections of the M40 and M42 should be re-opened. He said that new traffic flow figures and forecasts which had not been given at the original 100 day inquiry which ended in January 1974 should now be considered.
The extra delay that this would cause was preferable to leaving the motorway protesters with a sense of injustice, felt Lord Denning. "There has been a deplorable loss of confidence in public inquiries."
Motorway protesters welcomed the ruling, feeling that it leaves other inquiries more open to question over traffic flow figures. The only waythe two motorway sections in question could now go ahead without re-opening the inquiry ,is if there was a successful appeal to the House of Lords. The Department of Transport said that it was considering such an appeal.