Campaigners have won a case against a station car park expansion in Constable Country, in what they say is an “important victory” for protected landscapes.
The Dedham Vale Society and Campaign for National Parks brought a judicial review over the decision to approve a car park extension, lighting and fencing at the rail station at Manningtree, Essex, without observing a new legal duty to conserve and enhance national parks and national landscapes.
The station is within Dedham Vale National Landscape, a swathe of farmland, ancient woodlands, a meandering river and picturesque villages along the Essex-Suffolk border known as Constable Country – as it was the boyhood home and inspiration for landscape artist John Constable.
Communities Secretary Angela Rayner has accepted there was an “error of law” when the planning inspector under the last government approved the development without observing the new legal duty in May 2024.
The campaigners say the case sets a critical precedent for all of England’s 10 national parks and 34 national landscapes, previously known as areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs).
It means Government departments and public bodies will need to apply the legal duty to “seek to further” the purposes of protected landscapes – which include conserving and enhancing them – when making decisions that affect those areas, they said.
It comes as the Government seeks to reform environmental regulations which ministers say are holding up the building of homes and infrastructure needed to drive growth, and curb the “excessive use” of judicial reviews that delay projects.
Campaigners brought the case after Greater Anglia installed a 200-car extension to the car park, with dozens of lighting columns and a 190m-long steel wall along an important footpath into Constable Country, St Edmund Way, without planning permission.
The local council issued an enforcement notice over the works amid concerns over its visual impact on the landscape, but the planning inspector concluded in May 2024 that the scheme was unlikely to have significant effects on the environment and it was within permitted development rules.
The judicial review was due to be heard in February, but the Government has now conceded the decision was an error of law and it has been quashed, and must now be reconsidered.
Charles Clover, chairman of the Dedham Vale Society, said the development had taken out trees where he once heard a nightingale, and the recommended Constable Country walk to Dedham and Flatford had been “wrecked” by the “ghastly wall”.
The development has also prompted concerns about light pollution, amid a campaign to secure dark sky reserve status for Dedham Vale.
He described the outcome as an “enormously important victory” for the area and other protected landscapes.
“It means the new statutory duty on official bodies to ‘conserve and enhance’ national landscapes and national parks in their decisions must be complied with by all official bodies. Few have been doing so,” he said.
“This victory comes as a warning to all other official bodies with designs on the Dedham Vale – and any other protected landscapes – such as National Grid.”
Dr Rose O’Neill, from Campaign for National Parks, also said it was a “hugely significant win”.
She said: “For too long, Government bodies, such as Ofwat, the Planning Inspectorate and National Highways, have turned a blind eye.
“The Secretary of State’s admission that this is unlawful paves the way for all others to wake up and take action.”
And she said: “The ability of groups like ours to take judicial review is essential to safeguarding this country’s most cherished natural assets,” adding the case could have been avoided if the Government and developers had complied with the law.
A Greater Anglia spokesperson said: “As an interested party and not the defendant, Greater Anglia acknowledges the outcome of this judicial review.
“The decision will now be taken again by the Secretary of State and it would not be appropriate to comment further on that process at this time.”
A Government spokesperson said: “It is important that public bodies understand the law affecting their decisions and the government-published guidance on the new protected landscape duty to help with this.”
