Work on the proposed Spalding Western Relief Road is set to begin in the spring after the government decided not to “call-in” the applications for the first two sections of the controversial development.
The Secretary of State has decided that the decision of Lincolnshire County Council’s Planning Committee to pass the applications for the most northerly and southerly section of the road in July can stand.
South Holland and the Deepings MP, Sir John Hayes had asked that central government to “call-in” the application which meant it would decide on whether the sections could be built, rather than the county council.
But the Secretary of State has decided not to step in.
Karen Cassar, the county council’s assistant director for Highways, said: “I can now confirm that the Secretary of State has decided not to ‘call-in’ the planning applications for the northern and southern sections of the Spalding Western Relief Road
“The next step will be to officially appoint a contractor to build the northern section, ahead of starting work next spring.”
The council says the southerly section will follow with a hope of that being completed by 2022.
Protest group Spalding and Pinchbeck Against Relief Road (SPARR) circulated a letter to local media earlier this week from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government planning officer Michelle Peart which states: “The Secretary of State has decided, having had regard to this policy, not to call in this application.
“He is satisfied that the application should be determined at a local level.
“I appreciate that this is not the preferred outcome for you and I understand that there will be great disappointment as a result.”
Stacy Barneveld-Taylor from SPARR, said: “We are gutted at the decision.
“We were hoping that even if the applications were not called in, that at least the Secretary of State would have considered placing some additional conditions on the county council in terms of design and looking further into the environmental/ecological impacts, community amenity and design and alignment of the road.
“We do believe in light of all the Brexit debacle going on at parliament at the moment, that the SoS is just clearing his backlog left by his predecessor, but we were hopeful he would do something especially with the huge numbers of objections and personal letters delivered to him by Sir John Hayes.
As reported in last week’s Spalding Voice, a decision on the route of the central sections is due in the next few weeks after being delayed
The road has proved particularly controversial with funding for those central sections yet to be identified.
Many objections having been raised concerned that they will never be built while planned housing estates are built around the two sections that have planning permission.
Ms Barneveld-Taylor, says that SPARR will continue to fight the Relief Road ahead of the decision on the central sections with the group having held talks with Natural England recently and saying they will complain about the county council to the government ombudsman due to “a lack of consultation and transparency throughout this process.”
