Activists have won a case against a station parking park in Constable Country, in which they say that it is an “important victory” for protected landscapes.
The Dedham Vale Society and the campaign for national parks brought a judicial review of the decision to approved a parking space extension, lighting and fences at the railway station in Manningree, Essex, without observing a new legal obligation to maintain and improve national parks and national landscapes.
The station is located in Dedham Vale National Landscape, a series of arable land, old forests, a meandering river and picturesque villages along the Essex-Sufflolk border, which is known as Constable Country, the home and the inspiration for the landscape artist John Constable.
The municipal secretary Angela Rayner assumed that there was a “legal error” when the planning inspector under the last government approved the development without observing the new legal obligation in May 2024.
The activists say that the case determines a critical precedent for all 10 national parks and 34 national landscapes in England, which are previously known as areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (Aonbs).
This means that government departments and public institutions have to apply the legal obligation in order to make the purposes of protected landscapes that save and improve them – to make decisions that affect these areas, they said.
When the government is trying to reform environmental regulations, the ministers say that they hold the establishment of houses and infrastructures that are necessary for growth and to contain the “excessive use” of judicial reviews that delay the projects.
Activists brought the case after Greater Anglia had installed a 200-car expansion to the parking lot, with dozens of light columns and a 190 m long steel wall along an important footpath in Constable Country, St. Edmund Way, without a building permit along an important footpath.
The local council gave a assertiveness about the work in relation to its visual effects on the landscape, but the planning inspector came to the conclusion in May 2024 that the system probably had no significant effects on the environment and within the permissible development rules on the permissible development rules lay.
The judicial review should be negotiated in February, but the government has now admitted that the decision was a legal error and must now be reconsidered.
Charles Clover, chairman of Dedham Vale Society, said the development took out trees where he once heard a nightingale, and the recommended country walk from Constable to Dedham and Flatford was “destroyed” by the “horrible wall”.
The development has also triggered concerns about light pollution, since Dedham Vale creates a campaign to secure the Dark Sky Reserve status.
He described the result as an “enormously important victory” for the area and other protected landscapes.
“It means that the new legal obligation to maintain and improve national landscapes and national parks in their decisions must be observed by all official bodies. Few did this, ”he said.
“This victory is a warning to all other official positions with designs on the Dedham Vale – and all other protected landscapes such as the national network.”
Dr. Rose O'Neill, from the campaign for national parks, also said that it was an “extremely important victory”.
She said: “Government agencies such as OFWAT, the planning inspection and the national motorways have made an eye.
“The State Secretary of the State Secretary, this is illegal, paves the way for everyone else, to awake and take measures.”
And she said: “The ability of groups like ours to take over the judicial review is important to protect the most valued natural assets of this country.”
A spokesman for Greater Anglia said: “As an interested party and not the accused, Greater Anglia recognizes the result of this judicial review.
“The decision is now made again by the Foreign Minister and it would not be appropriate to comment on this process at this time.”
A government spokesman said: “It is important that public institutions understand the law that influences its decisions and the guidance published by the government for the new protected landscape obligation to help this.”