Plans to build Britain’s longest road tunnel have become “the longest application” on record – prompting wider concerns about the state of the planning system. Proposals to build the £9bn Lower Thames Crossing between Kent and Essex have seen reports amass some 359,866 pages spread over 2,838 separate documents submitted. There are so many pages of plans, arguments, and comments that if every page of paper was laid on the ground it would stretch 66 miles – the equivalent of trip from Gravesend to Cambridge. If every document was printed, it would weigh 1,620kg, which is slightly more than a Vo…
