Charity calls on Secretary of State to decide fate of Norwich Western Link
Norfolk Wildlife Trust says the planning application needs to be decided on by national Government.
Last updated 30th Aug 2024
A wildlife charity in Norfolk has sent a letter to the Secretary of State and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Raynor, to request that she uses her power of call-in regarding the controversial development of the Norwich Western Link.
Norfolk Wildlife Trust say it highlights the national significance of the devastating environmental impacts of the proposed road and asks that the planning application is decided by national Government.
This move follows a high-profile campaign against the road led by a coalition of local and national organisations, which resulted in over 4,600 objections against the road being submitted to Norfolk County Council during the public consultation which ended last week.
The road would connect the Norwich Northern Distributor Road to the A47 near Honingham, west of Norwich.
During the planning consultation, Norfolk Wildlife Trust sent a strongly worded objection to Norfolk County Council, outlining its concerns for the area’s wildlife and landscapes including habitats such as woodland, wetlands and rare chalk rivers, as well as the UK’s largest-known community of rare and legally protected barbastelle bats (see note 2).
In its letter to the Secretary of State, Norfolk Wildlife Trust highlights that the proposal to build a 6km dual carriageway across one of the finest landscapes in Norfolk is ‘the most ecologically damaging planning application they have seen in Norfolk in decades.’
Norfolk Wildlife Trust CEO, Eliot Lyne, goes on to say that the development ‘will have impacts of national significance which have the potential to directly conflict with national policy’ and that ‘there is a clear need for the Application to be properly scrutinised at a national inquiry and for the Application to be taken out of the applicant local planning authority’s hands.’
In the letter, Norfolk Wildlife Trust acknowledges that there is a need to find a solution to the transport issues that Norfolk County Council claim that the Norwich Western Link road would solve.
Eliot Lyne states: ‘We appreciate that there may be good reasons to provide solutions to congestion and other issues relating to transport in this part of Norfolk. We have no objection to sustainable development where wildlife is not adversely affected. However, the current proposal is objectively extremely damaging to wildlife.’
The Trust, along with many other nature conservation bodies and experts, has warned Norfolk County Council many times since the development was first proposed that the Norwich Western Link would have an unacceptable impact on Norfolk’s wildlife and landscape.