Nice to see that the Transport Committee in their new report on the National Networks NPS recommended that it should ‘specify other types of scheme which the Government thinks are needed—such as enhancements to the rail network to promote east-west connectivity …’ (and better road and rail connections to ports and airports and to parts of the country which are currently not well served by those networks.) But were they thinking about east-west connections between Oxford and Cambridge, or between Liverpool and Hull? It doesn’t say.

They also referred to the evidence submitted by NECTAR (and of course many others) against the proposal that climate change considerations should be excluded from planning considerations. The Committee commented: ‘However, opponents of a scheme may well wish to argue that a major road project could induce additional traffic and undermine national carbon emissions targets, particularly if a number of major road projects are being pursued simultaneously, carbon emissions targets are being missed and Government predictions of take-up of ultra-low emissions vehicles are not met.’ Indeed.

The report ducks the hottest issue of all: the attempted return to ‘predict & provide’ by a requirement to meet forecast demand growth. But at least it picked up on one of the inevitable consequences that draft NPS just forgot about: ‘We recommend that the NPS include specific provision for scheme promoters to assess and manage the impacts of developments to national networks on local networks.’