'It's far too difficult and takes far too long to get anything built in Britain': Fury as bid for new £10bn Thames Crossing becomes UK's biggest ever planning application at 359,000 pages

Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) is proposed to feature a 14.3-mile new motorwayRoute east of Dartford Crossing will include 2.6-mile road tunnel under Thames

The £10billion project for a new road tunnel scheme under the River Thames has become Britain’s biggest ever planning application, totalling 359,000 pages.

The Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) is proposed to feature a 14.3-mile new motorway including a 2.6-mile road tunnel running east of the Dartford Crossing.

The route aims to relieve congestion on the orbital M25 which it will connect to near South Ockenden in Essex, while it will also join the M2 near Rochester in Kent.

But the planning application documents would stretch 66 miles if they were laid out end-to-end – nearly five times as long as the road itself, reported The Times.

And campaigners say it has become ‘symbolic of what is wrong with our planning system’, with £267million spent by National Highways just on the application.

A final decision on the route, which has been in the planning stages since 2009, will be made within the next six months – but it will not open until 2031 at the earliest.

The southern tunnel entrance of the new Lower Thames Crossing linking Kent with Essex

The northern tunnel entrance of the Lower Thames Crossing which is in the planning stages

The recommendation by planning inspectors on the project, which would include Britain’s longest road tunnel, is set to be given to the Government by March 20.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper will then have three months to decide whether a development consent order should be granted.

Sam Richards, the founder of Britain Remade, a campaign group to promote economic growth, told The Times: ‘There is an unquestionable need for the crossing to cut congestion at the Dartford Crossing and improve air quality.

‘But the size of the application is insane. It’s symbolic of what is wrong with our planning system.’

The overall spend on the project has already hit £800million, with the application now containing 2,383 separate documents.

This is a higher total than that of London Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5, which itself led to calls for planning reforms when it was approved in 2001.

Seven years later the 2008 Planning Act was brought in, but critics claim this is already out of date and urgent changes are needed.

A Britain Remade spokesman added: ‘The Lower Thames Crossing’s 359,000 page planning application is symbolic of everything wrong with our planning system: it’s far too hard to build in Britain.

‘Delays and endless bureaucracy mean we can’t build the homes, transport links or clean energy projects the country needs.’

This shows shows the proposed Thong Lane bridge linking Gravesend and Thong in Kent

Chalk Park is a planned park in Kent with views over the Thames estuary as part of the project

Hole Farm will be a new woodland at the northern end of the proposed Lower Thames Crossing

An artist’s impression of the repaired Two Forts Way foot and cycle path in Thurrock, Essex

The Department for Transport declined to comment today, but sources confirmed to MailOnline that the inspectors’ examination into the LTC concluded on December 20 and Mr Harper will receive the recommendations by March 20.

National Highways previously said in plans unveiled in 2018 that the LTC will be a three-lane dual carriageway, resulting in a 90 per cent increase in capacity for traffic crossing the Thames east of London.

This was an upgrade on previous proposals for two lanes in some sections, which would have resulted in a rise of up to 70 per cent in capacity.

The scheme’s budget has also been spiralling, with the National Audit Office saying in November 2022 that the cost had been revised up from £8.2billion to £9billion. Campaigners say it could be even higher at about £10billion.

This was a significant rise on 2018 when it was pushed up to a range of £5.3billion to £6.8billion in 2018 due to more detailed design work and ground investigations.

An estimate before that had put the range at £4.4billion to £6.2billion.

The LTC would be the first new crossing of the river east of London since Dartford’s Queen Elizabeth II Bridge opened in 1991.

The only existing route for motorists is the Dartford Crossing, which consists of the bridge and two tunnels.

It is used for 50million journeys annually and is often the scene of frustration for motorists stuck in traffic jams for several hours following accidents.

The Lower Thames Crossing route according to an official map released by National Highways

Another map issued by National Highways intended for walkers, cyclists and horse riders

One of the many documents that makes up 359,000 pages worth of planning applications

The new crossing is expected to reduce traffic at Dartford by 22 per cent, but there are fears that traffic using the new crossing will blight communities with pollution on approach roads.

In June 2022, National Highways said more than a million trees will be planted as part of the scheme.

A community woodland and two public parks are among the 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of ‘landscape-scale’ forest creation planned.

Plans include planting more than one million extra trees – but campaigners at the Woodland Trust have criticised the project’s impact on ‘irreplaceable’ ancient woodland, wildlife and increased carbon emissions.

National Highways insists the new route will connect residents to jobs, boost the economy and create new public parks and woodland habitat.

In December 2020, reports suggested the LTC will contribute more than five million tonnes of carbon emissions.

Figures from a Freedom of Information request showed construction of the project will emit an estimated two million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

And the operational emissions cost of the project is expected to total 3.2 milliontonnes of CO2 over a 60-year appraisal period.