| Consultation update |
| Our statutory consultation is now closed. Thank you to everyone who submitted feedback. During the consultation we held 14 public information events, six webinars and received more than 10,000 pieces of feedback. We also held a series of briefings for local authority members, one webinar for younger audiences and pop-up events at universities in the region. We were pleased to welcome more than 2000 attendees at our events. We are now carefully reviewing the feedback we received and carrying out further technical studies and environmental surveys. This will help us to refine our proposals ahead of the submission of our Development Consent Order (DCO) application next year. We will continue to keep you up to date with Norwich to Tilbury, and don’t forget you can still access all consultation materials – including the interactive map and webinar recordings – via the Project website. |
What happens next? Following the close of our statutory consultation, we are considering all the requests we have received to change aspects of our project and finalising our proposed design. We will let you know if there are any significant changes as a result of the feedback. Over the next 12 months we will prepare an application for a Development Consent Order (DCO). When we submit our application, we will publish a Consultation Report which will set out how we have considered the feedback we received during statutory consultation. Once the DCO application is submitted, the Planning Inspectorate on behalf of the Secretary of State, has up to 28 days to decide whether or not the application meets the standards required to be accepted for examination. If the application is accepted, it will go through a six-month examination period. The Planning Inspectorate must then prepare a report on the application which they submit to the Secretary of State, along with a recommendation, within three months of the close of examination. The Secretary of State has a further three months to make a decision on whether to grant or refuse development consent. You can read more about the DCO process on our Project website.  |
SurveysWe are continuing to carry out technical and environmental surveys along the route and you might see some of our contractors at work. The findings from our surveys will continue to inform decisions on the final routeing and siting of pylons and cables. They will also help us to plan how we might build the project and, in particular, how we might avoid, reduce or mitigate any construction impacts. One area of particular focus is archaeology. We will carry out more geophysical archaeological surveys in September. We will use these to create maps of subsurface archaeological features to help us better understand where things might be buried under the ground. Our specialists will follow this with trial trenching surveys later this year. Up to date information on all our current surveys and where they are taking place can be found here.  |
| Norwich Main substation extension Planning approval has been granted for an expansion of the Norwich Main electricity substation near Dunston. The extension will allow new sources of offshore wind power generation from the Hornsea Project Three offshore wind farm, and the Equinor Sheringham Shoal and Dudgeon wind farm extensions to connect to the network. Adrian Chanter, Consents Officer at National Grid, said: “Our existing substation at Norwich Main has been in service for around 50 years. We now need to extend the site to enable new sources of electricity generation to connect to the grid to power homes and businesses and help meet the government’s clean power targets”. Construction work is expected to begin this September and complete in 2026. The Norwich Main project team will keep local residents updated. |