A report has been published which suggests ways for new roads to delivered more quickly and easily.
The Review of Legal Challenges to Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, by leading planning barrister Lord Charles Banner KC, aims to reduce delays to Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects “and get Britain building”, with ten recommendations set out for government on how to reduce barriers to development and resolve challenges more effectively.
These include options to streamline the judicial review process, reduce the amount of time it takes for legal challenges against these projects to move through the courts, and improve the way data on case progress is published.
The report says these major projects, which also include railway lines, windfarms, harbours, power stations and waste water management facilities, are often held up by judicial review challenges, sometimes setting them back years in delays, increasing the costs significantly.
The Government says it will carefully review recommendations and the responses received in the call for evidence before publishing a response with a focus on ensuring there is a balance between the critical need for projects and maintaining the public’s right to challenge government decisions.
Alongside the publication of the review, the Ministry of Justice, has published a call for evidence seeking views on Lord Banner’s recommendations.
The recommendations include target timescales should be introduced for DCO judicial reviews in the Court of Appeal, fewer ‘bites of the cherry’ for claimants seeking permission to bring a judicial review and the option of raising the permission threshold for a judicial review of a Development Consent Order (DCO) decision requires further consideration.
In a recent Highways Voices podcast, National Highways CEO Nick Harris discussed legal challenges to road schemes, saying that they consider environmental issues during the planning process and pointing out that his organisation has never lost a case.
(File picture – National Highways)
