The environmentalist group, Friends of the Earth has launched a legal challenge to the new National Planning Policy Framework recently published by the Government.
The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the Government's planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied.
Friends of the Earth has asked the High Court to consider a judicial review of the new National Planning Policy Framework, on the grounds that the Government failed to carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment, required by EU legislation, whenever policies or plans are likely to have a big impact on the environment.
The intention of Friends of the Earth is thought to be to require the Government to carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment and consult the public, rather than to reject the whole document.
William Rundle, head of legal at Friends of the Earth gave the following reasons for taking the Government to court:
"the Government pays lip service to leaving the environment in a better state for future generations but in reality does the opposite. Giving the green light to climate-wrecking Heathrow expansion and publishing a new national framework for development in England without any assessment of its major environmental implications begs the question of what happened to good governance.
This is why we are taking the Government to court – to make sure that the Government does undertake an environmental assessment of the new framework, so that the public are told about any environmental damage it could cause, and for the Government to take that environmental assessment into account to avoid damage in the first place."
Friends of the Earth sent a formal pre-action letter on 1 August to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, but they are yet to have a response.
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