Section 48 Planning Notice

Regulation 4 Infrastructure Planning (Applications: Prescribed Forms and Procedure) Regulations 2009

Amended Notice of consultation regarding changes to proposed application for Development Consent Order to construct, operate and decommission the Thurrock Flexible Generation Plant, Tilbury Marshes.

1. This Notice replaces that published in the Gravesend Messenger newspaper on 26th September 2019. Due to circumstances beyond the control of Thurrock Power Limited (‘TPL’), the dates of the consultation on the project changes summarised below have had to be changed to 11th October 2019 to 11th November 2019.

2. This Notice is supplemental to the Notice published in October 2018 wherein it was stated that:  

3. TPL, of 1st Floor, 145 Kensington Church Street, London, W8 7LP intends to apply to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy for a Development Consent Order (‘DCO’) under section 37 of the Planning Act 2008 (the ‘Act’) to authorise the construction, operation and decommissioning of a gas fired flexible electricity generation plant and battery storage facility (the ‘Project’). 

4. The Project consists of; reciprocating gas engines with rated electrical output totalling up to 600 MW, batteries with rated electrical output of 150 MW and storage capacity of up to 600 MW, associated electrical and control equipment, new access roads, a gas pipeline connection to the gas national transmission system, an electrical export connection via underground cables to the immediately adjacent National Grid Tilbury Substation, and common land exchange.

5. The main development site for the Project covers an area of approximately 18 hectares and is located on the Tilbury Marshes, just east of the existing Tilbury Substation, in Thurrock, Essex

6. The Project is EIA development and an Environmental Impact Assessment will be required to accompany the application.

The full Notice published in October 2018 is available on the Project website: www.thurrockpower.co.uk. 

• The initial consultation for the project ran from 16th October 2018 to 14th November 2018. Copies of the documents relating to that consultation, including the Preliminary Environmental Information Report (‘PEIR’),  are still available on the Project website: www.thurrockpower.co.uk. 

• As a result of responses to the initial consultation, discussion with stakeholders and ongoing iterative design refinement, certain aspects of the Project have been changed. In particular:

• Construction access to the site will be taken from the south and west rather than to the north;

• A new permanent causeway into the River Thames will be constructed and used during construction for the delivery of abnormal indivisible loads by water, along with a haul road from the causeway to the construction site. There are two, alternative, options proposed for the route of that haul road in this consultation;

• Primary construction access will be from the west through land to the north of the recently constructed Tilbury 2 site and will connect the main Project site to the A1089 public highway;

• Previously proposed access routes for abnormal indivisible loads have been removed from the Project;

• Previously proposed works to existing public highways to the north of the Project site and the creation of a new construction haul road running east-west from the A126 Gateway Academy roundabout have been removed from the Project;

• Alteration of the areas of land to be used for wildlife habitat compensation;

• Additional land to the west of the main Project site has been included for carbon capture readiness; and

• A new footpath has been added to link Fort Road with the replacement common land included in the Project.

• Documents, maps and plans containing further Information about the design changes will be available to view or download free of charge on the Project website: (www.thurrockpower.co.uk) from 11th October 2019. 

• The consultation documents mentioned in paragraph 4, above, will also be available to view free of charge during the formal consultation period, from 11th October 2019 to 11th November 2019, at the following public venues (opening times may vary): 

• If you wish to respond to this notice and/or make representations about the changes to the Project, these should be provided to TPL. Responses or representations can be made in the following ways: email: [email protected]; Freepost to: Freepost THURROCK POWER; telephone: 0207 1860580. Please include your name and a postal or email address where correspondence about the response can be sent. Please also indicate whether you would like to receive updates on the Project by email.

• Your responses will be analysed by TPL and/or their appointed agents. Responses may be made public (although personal information will be removed) and copies may be made available to the Planning Inspectorate, Secretary of State and/or other relevant statutory bodies. If you are responding on behalf of an organisation, the organisation may be named in the Consultation Report which will accompany our DCO application.

• Please note that all responses must be received by TPL by 11.59pm on 11th November 2019. TPL cannot guarantee that late responses will be considered.