'Blight of dirty dozen road schemes'

A "dirty dozen" road building schemes in and around London must be axed before they ruin residents' lives, a pressure group warned today.

Transport 2000 wants the projects - some already under way - cancelled or scaled down, claiming London's traffic and pollution will worsen.

Most damaging of all, it says, is widening the M25 around much of its length by 2012. Work has begun near Heathrow.

Schemes involve: the M1, widening between Milton Keynes and London starting in 2006; the A13, where widening has begun, to help regenerate east London; and the A206 Thames Road in Bexley, where dual carriageway work has started.

Others are: the Lower Lea Valley M25-London link road; the Thames Gateway Bridge from Beckton to Thamesmead; a "third Blackwall Tunnel" from Greenwich to Silvertown; widening of the North Circular, plus sections of the A1 (M) and the M11; upgrading the A12 to six lanes between the M25 and A120, and widening of the A21 near Lamberhurst in Kent.

Transport for London said: "Each case is only supported where road capacity contributes to wider-scale regeneration of an area."