Campaigners have won the right for a High Court oral hearing to be held to establish whether work can begin on a multi-million-pound project to dual the A428 from the Black Cat roundabout in Bedfordshire to Caxton Gibbet in Cambridgeshire.

The Bedfordshire Independent newspaper reports that the Transport Action Network submitted an application to the High Court seeking permission for a judicial review of the Secretary of State for Transport’s decision to grant the A428 development consent order.

The organisation is challenging the Secretary of State’s decision over biodiversity, the need for the scheme and climate change.

The paper explains that, although a judge at the High Court has reviewed the application and refused to allow a judicial review on all three grounds, the pressure group has won the right for an oral review.

Improvements to the route linking the M1 south of Milton Keynes to the M11 in Cambridgeshire were due to have begun towards the end of last year, only to be put on hold after the legal challenge was lodged in October.

(Picture – National Highways)