49: NEWS - first Statement of Community Consultation published

This is entry number 49, first published on 2 November 2009, of a blog on the implementation of the Planning Act 2008. Click here for a link to the whole blog. If you would like to receive blog updates by email, click here.

Today's entry reports on the publication of the first Statements of Community Consultation, part of the Planning Act regime.

National Grid has stolen a march on the other prospective promoters of projects under the Planning Act 2008 by publishing two Statements of Community Consultation, and these are almost certainly the first.

The new regime for authorising nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) becomes compulsory for larger energy and transport projects on 1 March 2010. The regime requires a considerable amount of consultation before an application can be made - see this blog entry for more details. Those planning on making early applications to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) will thus need to be taking steps now if they are to be ready in time.

One of the first steps that must be taken, and this may turn out to be the first public announcement of a prospective project by a promoter, is the publication of a 'Statement of Community Consultation', or SoCC as it is inevitably being called. This is a statement of how the promoter proposes to consult the community local to its prospective project, which it must prepare and allow the local authority/ies whose area will contain the project, to comment on.

Ten days ago IPC, which is to receive and consider applications for NSIPs, published details of the first 11 projects of which it had notice and permission to publicise. Two of these were for electric lines (to connect new nuclear power stations at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk to the grid, themselves on the list as future NSIPs), and it is these two that are the subject of the first SoCCs.

The lines do not actually reach the sites of the two power stations because they are already sufficiently connected in their immediate area. The Hinkley Point line will be about 60km long and is to go from Bridgwater Substation in Somerset to Seabank Substation at Avonmouth, and the Sizewell line is about 26-30km long and is to go from Bramford Substation near Ipswich to Twinstead in Essex. The former is being called the 'Hinckley Point C Connection Project' and the latter the 'Bramford - Twinstead 400kV overhead line project', because two other new power stations and potentially offshore windfarms as well as Sizewell will use the line.

Avid readers of three local newspapers in the Somerset area and a further seven in Essex and Sussex may have spotted the publication (in two consecutive weeks, although not required) of half-page public notices headed 'National Grid Electricity Transmission plc'. These are the Statements of Community Consultation - the declarations as to how National Grid proposes to consult the public in the vicinity of the proposed lines.

The size limits for images on this blog prevent a legible version of the SoCCs from being displayed, but the details of the two are very similar. By being first, National Grid are setting the standard for both what a SoCC should look like and what public consultation should involve, so it is worth setting out.

Public consultation is being split into two stages - route options and substation locations for the lines first, and then detailed consultation on the chosen route. The actual applications for the NSIPs are not planned until summer 2011, taking a leaf out of the Civil Service book of using seasons for greater flexibility.

The methods of consulation for the first stage are quite numerous:

• No fewer than 14 public meetings are being held for the Hinkley Point project, and 19 for the Bramford to Twinstead project, at about 6km intervals along the proposed routes.
• All those living within 1km will be mailed directly.
• Briefings are being offered to Parish and Town Councils, and other organisations can invite NG to brief them.
• Specific Community Forums may also be created.
• Project Updates will be distributed at least every six months to those organisations and others who request them.
• Comments can be made online, to freepost addresses or by telephone.
• Project documents are available online, at NG's offices and at six local councils' offices for each project, as well as for purchase on CD-Rom for £15 and in hard copy for no more than £100.

The Hinkley Point C Connection project's website is at http://www.nationalgrid.com/hinkleyconnection, and the Bramford - Twinstead 400kV overhead line project's website is at http://www.nationalgrid.com/bramford-twinstead.

So here we have the first real signs of projects being prepared for the new regime. National Grid has two of the more geographically extensive projects covering several local authorities but is nevertheless being very thorough with its consultation.