North West Coast Connections Project: Proposed Route Alignment Stage
Decision Maker: Cabinet Member for Environment, Planning and Cultural Services
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Is Key decision?: No
Purpose:
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National Grid is consulting formally on its North West Coast Connections project, a nationally significant infrastructure project, linking the proposed new nuclear power station at Moorside in Cumbria to the national distribution network in Carlisle and in Heysham. In Lancashire the project will consist of a tunnel carrying 4 new 400kv transmission circuits under Morecambe Bay, and a tunnel head building with cooling fans and substation extension at Middleton.
Under a Planning Performance Agreement (PPA), the consultancy WYG has been commissioned to provide some technical expertise to the PPA authorities (all of the County and District councils that are affected by the project) to assist in interpreting the technical information published as part of the consultation, and to work with the PPA authorities to produce a combined 'PPA Group Authorities response' to the consultation.
PPA officers and WYG technical specialists have undertaken an analysis of the consultation material, building on this earlier work, to produce more detailed feedback on the proposal. This has been used to produce a Preliminary Environmental Impact Headlines report (Appendix 'A' refers).
Building on this earlier work, and further more detailed analysis of the consultation material, WYG technical specialists have produced the combined 'PPA Group Authorities response'; expressed as a Technical Appraisal of the proposal (Appendix 'B' refers), and an Executive Summary (Appendix 'C' refers). A final meeting will take place on the 10 January to agree the final version of the documents to be submitted to National Grid as the combined 'PPA Group Authorities' response. This extension has been agreed with National Grid. |
Decision:
Please note amended decision:
County Councillor Marcus Johnstone, the Cabinet Member for Environment, Planning and Cultural Services:
i. Approved the submission of this report and the Preliminary Environmental Impact Headlines report (Appendix 'A' refers), and the PPA Group Authorities response Executive Summary (Appendix 'B' refers) as the County Council's interim response to the North West Coast Connections Section 42 consultation, expressing the Council's concern that:
· Insufficient attention has been given to construction and operational design at the tunnel heads to ensure impacts can be sufficiently mitigated particularly given that construction work may last up to six years.
· No meaningful mitigation is proposed to address noise, vibration, air quality, light, ecology or residential amenity impacts at the tunnel head;
· Residential/school receptors should be classed as ‘high’ sensitivity for a range of impacts. This has not been accepted in the submitted assessments and impacts on all the predictions and outcomes;
· There is incomplete workforce planning and accommodation proposals at the tunnel-heads;
· The level of construction materials and tunnel spoil generated will place extensive pressure on existing transport infrastructure. A multi-modal option is the only acceptable solution.
ii. Agreed to the County Council signing up to the combined 'PPA Group Authorities response, including the Executive Summary (Appendix 'B' refers), and authorise the Head of Planning and Environment to approve any minor changes to the document arising from the PPA Group Authorities meeting on 10 January 2017 prior to its submission to National Grid following that meeting.
Divisions Affected: Heysham;
Contact: Richard Sharples Email: richard.sharples@lancashire.gov.uk Tel: 01772 534294.
Date of decision: 05/01/2017
Effective from: 11/01/2017
Accompanying Documents:
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