The Silkin Test is a UK planning policy designed to control major developments which will affect areas classified as National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
The three main criteria state that - it must be in the National interest; there is no practicable alternative to development in a National Park; must be built in a way that minimises detrimental effects on the environment.
The test was contained in Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 7: Sustainable Development in Rural Areas (formerly PPG7)until August 2004 the test was contained in its precursor - Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) 7: The Countryside – Environmental Quality and Economic and Social Development. PPS7 has now been replaced by the National Planning Policy Framework (2012), in which paras. 115/116 set out a differently-worded test.
History The criteria were first proposed by the then Minister of Town and Country Planning, Lewis Silkin MP in 1949.
Notable applications South Wales Gas Pipeline (2007)
See also Lewis Silkin, 1st Baron Silkin Sandford approach (1976) Waldegrave formulation (1987)
References