The government is reportedly planning to clip the wings of conservation and environmental groups in its drive to accelerate house-building and infrastructure construction.
According to The Times newspaper, the forthcoming Planning & Infrastructure Bill, expected to be introduced to parliament later this year, will strip environmental quangos like Natural England of powers to get in the way of builders.
Schemes that disturb local bat or newt colonies will be required to put money into a national offsetting fund to mitigate the local damage by making somewhere else ‘better’.
However, the legislation could be all too late for Norfolk County Council which has conceded defeat to the barbastelle bat.
In March 2024, days before a planning application for the Norwich Western Link was due to be submitted, Natural England published updated guidance on barbastelle bats, which are present in the area of the proposed 6.1km dual carriageway road to the west of Norwich. Natural England has said the road “would destroy one of the largest remaining populations in the UK”.
The Norwich Western Link (NWL), proposed by Norfolk County Council, would complete a bypass around the city by joining the A1067 Fakenham Road to the A47. Funding for the £274m road was promised by the previous Conservative government in 2023.
“Since March, our serious efforts to find a solution have unfortunately not provided a way forward,” said Cllr Graham Plant, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure. “Most recently, in December, we received responses from Natural England and DEFRA, the government department that sponsors Natural England. Neither response helps to resolve the issue that is preventing us from progressing this important infrastructure project, nor answered the specific questions which we asked, which is disappointing.”
He continued: “We have exhausted all our options in relation to this, so we have made the difficult decision to withdraw the current planning application and prioritise discussions with the Department for Transport (DfT) on the way forward for the project.”
He added: “I can reassure you that the Norwich Western Link remains a priority project for this council… Until we’ve spoken to DfT and reached agreement, we do not want to pre-judge that outcome but our priority remains helping the traffic-blighted communities and improving travel and road safety to the west of Norwich.”
“The government has said it is keen to enable economic growth and deliver infrastructure, so we have shared goals, which gives us confidence that we can reach a good solution together.”
Norfolk County Council awarded Ferrovial Construction a £107m design and construction contract back in June 2021 for the scheme, which includes 6.1km of dual carriageway and seven structures including a 670-metre viaduct over River Wensum. At that time, construction was expected to complete in 2025.
The Transport Action Network (TAN) campaign group, which has yet to see a road building scheme that it doesn’t want killed, welcomed the cancellation of Norwich Western Link. TAN director Chris Todd said: “Norfolk Council has wasted millions of pounds of taxpayers money pursuing this unsustainable and unbuildable scheme. The council was warned about the existence of internationally important bat roosts many years ago, but carried on regardless. This issue has finally come back to haunt it and effectively killed the scheme off. The council now needs to focus on measures that will reduce traffic, whilst preserving important natural habitats.”
