It’s emerged that National Highways has spent £266.7 million on the development consent order application for its Lower Thames Crossing scheme.

The magazine and website New Civil Engineer submitted a Freedom of Information request which reveals how much National Highways spent of on developing and re-developing the application over the course of five and a half years.

It includes more than £200 million on the first DCO which was withdrawn in November 2020 due to the Planning Inspectorate’s demand for more information in relation to construction plans and environmental mitigations.

NCE says this displays “the increased complexity and scrutiny in the current planning system”.

Read the full report and comments here.

(Picture – National Highways)