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 |
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 |
