Plans for a desperately needed new road is set to be shelved due to the discovery of rare bats.
Protected wildlife have long been a thorn in developers’ sides – capable of shutting down projects as soon as they have begun.
Now a £247m road planned for a 3.9-mile stretch near the village of Easton in Norwich could be the latest victim of environmentally-motivated cancellation after rare barbastelle bats were discovered at the site.
Norfolk County Council has confirmed that plans for the Norwich Western Link will be withdrawn months after Natural England warned that it was unlikely to grant a licence for the project because it would require either harming or moving the protected wildlife.
Residents expressing their support for the plans said the road would “take the pressure off the little villages around the north west of Norwich and remove the need for rat runs”.
“For those living to the north of Norwich, it is vital to have easy access to the south,” another wrote.
They added: “I hope the views of local residents to whom it concerns should be listened to and not those who jump on the eco bandwagon and live at the other end of the country!”
But Graham Plant, cabinet member for highways at the council, said the plans were withdrawn after the authority “exhausted all options” for the development – which he described as crucial to solving “transport issues and growing traffic congestion” to the west of Norwich.
The council had promised that the plans would improve transport links in the area, cutting journey times and pollution. The road would have linked the A47 at Easton withthe Broadland Northway A1067. The previous Conservative government committed to paying for 80% of the scheme in October 2023.
Tory council leader Kay Mason Billing said new guidance from Natural England giving barbastelle bats “favourable conservation status” made the transport infrastructure “almost impossible to achieve”.
The council altered the road’s design in response to concerns over the bat population back in 2022 but Natural England insisted that not enough had been done to mitigate the impact.
“I’m very disappointed, we want to deliver this road for the people of Norfolk, we know the majority of people want it, we need it for economic development, we need it to make our roads safer,” Ms Mason Billing said in a council meeting last March.
In a statement released today, Mr Plant predicted that the news would be “immensely disappointing and frustrating” for many and pledged to discuss the project’s future with the Department for Transport in a continued bid to “help traffic-blighted communities and improve travel and road safety”.
Despite assertions that the road would go some way to improving traffic issues in the Wensum Valley, campaigners including BBC presenter Chris Packham have celebrated the news that it – seemingly – won’t go ahead. Mr Packham said the project’s axing was “fantastic news … not just for bats but for all biodiversity”, the BBC reports.
Labour MP for Norwich South Clive Lewis also suggested that the “environmentally and financially ruinous scheme” had been a “beyond-all-reason obsession” of the council.
He added that the £200m earmarked by the government for the project should “stay in Norfolk to deal with the fallout now that the road seems to be gone for good”.
