Airports, solar panels and canals: your latest update from the Planning team

In 2023/24, we were engaged in the Luton Airport expansion NSIP (to increase capacity to 32 million passengers per annum) in which the Chilterns National Landscape raised objections, with the Secretary of State’s decision to grant permission on 3 April 2025 subsequently the subject of legal challenges. On 20 May this year, the Court of Appeal refused an extension of time to the latest judicial challenge, in effect ending any further judicial reviews and allowed the permission to proceed to its phased implementation.

Two new NSIPs have been reviewed in the last few months, both deemed too far from the Chilterns National Landscape to impact its setting either visually or by any other pathway – such as ecology or transport impacts. These being the Rosefield Solar Farm in North Buckinghamshire (some 20 km from the nearest boundary of the National Landscape) and the Oxfordshire Strategic Rail Freight Interchange (OXSRFi) south west of Junction 10 of the M40 Motorway, some 34 km from the Chilterns National Landscape. This proposal was reviewed to see if any “knock-on” impacts arise to, for example, associated further infrastructure on the Chiltern line to which it links. No such impacts were apparent in the currently available papers.

Finally, two NSIP projects at pre-submission (i.e. involving consultations ahead of a formal submission) include London Heathrow’s expansion to 150 million passengers per year and the Grand Union Canal Transfer Project proposal.

At Heathrow, the Chilterns National Landscape, along with many other stakeholders, has been invited to join a landscape working group, to examine the methodology to be used to assess landscape and visual impacts. For us, this will include an assessment of the potential impacts upon the tranquillity of the Chilterns.

The Grand Union Transfer Project plans to move and treat water from the Severn and Trent catchments to the Affinity Water supply (in Hertfordshire) via the Grand Union Canal. This potentially impacts the north Chilterns, around Dunstable, and the chalk aquifer. Details on the necessary pipeline supply, the route corridor and technical details are yet to be finalised, and we are engaged in the ongoing engagement on these and other environmental implications.