A judge has rejected a claim that, in granting planning permission for a new relief road in Grantham, the local authority was wrong not to consider its environmental effects in conjunction with those of a proposed 4,000 home urban expansion it will serve.
Lang J ruled that proposals for the new link road predated the proposed Southern Quadrant Sustainable Urban Extension (SQSUE) and that, while it will provide important access to the development, it was originally intended to relieve town centre congestion by providing a bypass between the A1 and A52.
In addition, she said that the Granthan Southern Quadrant Link Road was a different category of infrastructure project than the SQSUE, and that while Lincolnshire county council had applied for the link road, the other project was pursued by a private developer.
Upholding South Kesteven district council’s grant of planning permission for the road, she said: “I do not consider that the claimant has established any error of law in the defendant’s decision making process. In my view, it was entitled to conclude, in the exercise of its judgment, that the link road was not an integral part of the SQSUE, such that both developments ought to be considered jointly, as if they comprised a single development.”
She added: “Construction of the link road was in accordance with the Grantham transport strategy which recommended a bypass linking the arterial roads (the A1 and the A52), so that through traffic, particularly HGV lorries, would not need to pass through Grantham town centre.
“The Grantham transport strategy recommending the bypass predated the SQSUE. The bypass diverting traffic away from the town centre was needed whether or not there was an SQSUE.
“Once the SQSUE was planned, the proposed link road met an important additional need as an access route to the SQSUE. But this did not make the link road part of the same development as the SQSUE. Plainly road access had to be provided to the SQSUE.
“But it did not have to be in the form of a major link road joining two arterial roads. If there had not been an independent requirement for a bypass, the SQSUE could simply have been connected by new roads to the existing A52 or B1174.”
Larkfleet Ltd had claimed that the council’s decision was unlawful due to a failure to consider the cumulative environmental effects of the two developments together.
The judge said that Larkfleet had a “commercial interest” in challenging the grant of planning permission, as it has interests in land at Manthorpe to the north of Grantham, which it considers to be a more appropriate location for an urban expansion of the town. But she said that planning permission had been refused for that site.
The Queen on the application of Larkfleet Ltd v South Kesteven district council Planning Court (Lang J) 18 November 2014
Martin Kingston QC and Charles Banner (instructed by Marrons Shakespeares) for the claimant
Richard Langham (instructed by South Kesteven District Council) for the defendant
John Hobson QC (instructed by Lincolnshire County Council) for the interested party
