BroomPylons Consultation – Last chance to comment
See the following Press Statement, issued by Rosie Pearson of Essex Suffolk and Norfolk pylons –
PRESS STATEMENT
With the National Grid’s Norwich to Tilbury 112 mile-pylons consultation closing on Friday, Essex Suffolk Norfolk Pylons action group is urging people to respond. This is likely the last consultation before an application to build is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate.
Leading planning barrister, Lord Charles Banner KC has found further legal deficiencies in National Grid’s approach. He says, in an opinion (attached) for the group, which was finalised this week, that National Grid’s consultation, “falls short of adequate pre-application consultation sufficient to enable a Development Consent Order application to proceed to examination”.
Lord Banner adds, “Professional reports that accompany the campaign group’s response to the consultation demonstrate procedural and methodological errors in National Grid’s approach to landscape, heritage & archaeology, soils and the environment, which if not corrected (and any corrections properly consulted upon) would present fundamental difficulties for any DCO application.”
Founder of the Essex Suffolk Norfolk Pylons action group, Rosie Pearson said, “We urge people to have their say before the weekend. We know that there are cheaper and less damaging ways of bringing the offshore wind power from the North Sea to where it’s needed. We need an integrated offshore grid that reduces infrastructure overall, protects the environment and saves money. When power is onshore, the existing grid should be upgraded and High Voltage Direct Current cables placed underground instead of pylons. This is a method that National Grid has preferred over pylons in a project in Lincolnshire, saying it will be quicker to build and cheaper over the project lifetime. Our website www.pylonseastanglia.co.uk lets you know how to contact National Grid.”
Legal opinion here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1REMU3EamcTIUa_rrF606n8NtKaM-UPiT/view?usp=sharing
