£1.2bn spent without even a shovel of dirt being removed. [1] Instead they have spent money on shite like this [2] (which may be admirable in themselves, but bribes to shut local communities and charities up shouldn't be part of the project).
[1] https://www.kentonline.co.uk/gravesend/news/1-2bn-spent-on-l...
[2] https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-roads/lower-thames-crossi...
Half a million at most out of 1.2 billion.
> To date, 55 projects have been awarded grants of up to £10,000
Running community benefit projects as mitigation for other harms does make some sense when the cost of an engineering solution is much higher.
Otherwise it's
1) Don't build national infrastructure
2) Ignore local opposition
I have seen the current Labour government start to override councils putting up fusses, too early to see if it makes any meaningful effect though.
I watched this video from TLDR last year and found it easy to understand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYPFlDGQah4
If you're gonna be anti-progress, fine, but it should cost you, not others