A JUDICIAL review of the Welsh Government’s plans to build a new stretch of motorway to the south of Newport will be heard in March 2015.

Lawyers Deighton Pierce Glynn, acting for Friends of the Earth Cymru, have confirmed that the case has been listed to be heard in Cardiff Civil Justice Centre over the course of three days from Tuesday 10 March 2015.

Friends of the Earth Cymru will be represented by barristers Alex Goodman and Matthew Dale-Harris, from Landmark Chambers.

Director of Friends of the Earth Cymru, Gareth Clubb said:

“We are challenging the Welsh Government’s decision to build a motorway through the Gwent Levels, an area comprising several sites of special scientific interest and the River Usk Special Area of Conservation.  The Government has a duty to protect these sites, and to look carefully at alternatives to their destruction.

“We’re convinced that the Welsh Government failed to do this, and in doing so has settled on a proposal that will result in wholly unnecessary environmental damage at a cost of more than £1 billion. The people of Wales deserve a sensible and well informed debate on such an important and costly plan, in which less environmentally damaging alternatives should be properly considered.

“The government’s decision was based on modelling that has already proven to be laughably out of touch with reality. Traffic in Wales is now 3% lower than it was at its peak in 2007 - in complete contrast to the increase expected by the Welsh Government. The government needs to recognise that times have changed.

“Major investment in public transport, and support for people to walk and cycle, could be enough to continue the downward trend in car use”.