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Date Set For New Tyne Crossing Legal Challenge

A legal challenge to the Government’s decision to approve a second Tyne Crossing will be heard in the High Court in London on April 5, 2006, it has been announced.

The Challenge is being brought by a member of the public, Mr Brian Atkinson. Mr Atkinson is a member of Friends of the Earth but is making the Legal Challenge as an individual.

The basis of the Legal Challenge is that the Secretary of State has ‘erred in law’ in approving the application by the Tyne and Wear Transport Authority (TWPTA) to go ahead with the planning and construction of the New Tyne Crossing following a Public Inquiry in 2003. The New Tyne Crossing will be an immersed tube tunnel between East Howdon (North Tyneside) and Jarrow (South Tyneside).

It will complete the dualling of the A19 which runs from south of Cramlington, Northumberland, to North Yorkshire. Councillor Tom Hanson, deputy chairman of the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority (TWPTA) which is sponsoring the New Tyne Crossing, said: “The challenge was made on August 30, 2005 and it has taken longer than expected to get a date for the hearing. We are delighted that a date has now been set. “Whatever the outcome of the Legal Challenge, the New Tyne Crossing will be built.

It is vital to the economic prospects of Tyne and Wear.“ It is expected that the hearing will last a number of days. A judgement will then be delivered by mid-May.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .