title: Silkin Test
text: # Silkin Test
  
  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was contained in Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 7: Sustainable Development in Rural Areas (formerly PPG7) PPS7 has now been replaced by the National Planning Policy Framework (2012), in which paras. 115/116 set out a differently-worded test.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)
  