My Right Honourable Friend, the Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, has asked me to make this written ministerial statement.
This notification clarifies that the deadline for a decision on the A1 in Northumberland – Morpeth to Ellingham Development Consent Order under the Planning Act 2008 has been extended.
The extension is in response to the written statement issued by the Secretary of State on the Union Connectivity Review on May 26, 2022.
The proposed construction includes widening a 12.8-mile length of the A1 between Morpeth and Ellingham, with about 9 miles of online widening and 3.8 miles of new offline motorway.
Following a written ministerial statement laid on 15 December 2021 to allow for further consideration of environmental matters, the Secretary of State received the Examining Authority’s report on 5 October 2021, and the original deadline for a decision was extended from 5 January 2022 to 5 June 2022.
The next decision must be made by December 5, 2022.
The decision to extend the deadline has no bearing on the decision on whether to grant development consent for the above-mentioned application.