A review of plans for the National Highways Lower Thames Cross will begin this month, unless an application for a delay is approved by an opposing council.
In a submission to the Planning Inspectorate, Thurrock Council has asked for more time to analyze the application documents and complete its local impact report and other documents.
Essex council maintains that continuing with the current timetable would put the council at an “unfair disadvantage”, adding that the project will affect “approximately 10 per cent of the total area of the borough and the community of Thurrock would be affected by approximately 70 percent of the impact of the scheme”.
Last week (6 June) the first preliminary meeting of the examination phase of the Planning Inspectorate was held. If the council’s request for a delay is rejected, the official examination will begin after the second preliminary meeting on June 20.
At the first preliminary meeting, Dartford Council’s chief transport planner Lukman Agboola said: “The good news is that things are now moving and the examining authority has been appointed.”
He added that the first “open hearing” schedule began on June 20 and would run until December.
If the start date is delayed, Agboola said the start of works could be pushed back from 2026 to 2027.
“Thurrock is asking for a delay in the start of the hearing, and they are also supported by other authorities, although most people would like the hearing to go ahead,” he said. “Apart from the usual suspects, which are Thurrock and Gravesham, most people really want this project.”
The Lower Thames Crossing is a proposed road crossing the Thames Estuary to the east of the existing Dartford Crossing. In January, Britain’s biggest contractor Balfour Beatty won a £1.2 billion package to build roads as part of the megaproject. It is still awaiting development consent, and National Highways acknowledged earlier this year that it needs new technology to meet its climate targets for the project.
The project was delayed by two years in March by Transport Secretary Mark Harper, who said that while the government was “continuing to[s] committed’ to the Lower Thames Crossing, the process to gain development consent was an opportunity to ‘consult further to ensure there was an effective and deliverable plan’.
He added: “To allow time for this process and taking into account wider pressures [the government’s] Road investment strategy (RIS), we will try to reformulate the construction in two years”.
National Highways maintains the road would reduce traffic at Dartford Crossing by around 20 per cent.
