East Suffolk Council
Council responds to further consultation period on Sea Link energy project
East Suffolk Council has repeated calls for a coordinated approach to delivering the infrastructure required to support the proposed Sea Link project as National Grid begins a further stage of consultation.
The Sea Link project, being developed by National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET), involves the reinforcement of the electricity transmission network between Suffolk and Kent.
While part of the project comprises a 122km offshore Direct Current (DC) link, a significant amount of onshore infrastructure is proposed, with landfall between Thorpeness and Aldeburgh, onshore cables, connection to the transmission network via either the proposed substation at Friston or via a new substation, and a 2GW converter station proposed near Saxmundham.
The onshore infrastructure will have significant environmental, social and economic impacts, both alone and cumulatively with other nationally significant projects being proposed in East Suffolk.
East Suffolk Council continues to call for a coordinated strategic approach to the delivery of the energy infrastructure, including a more rigorous approach to Offshore Coordination Support Scheme possibilities around coordinated offshore transmission infrastructure and alternative brownfield landfall locations that may be possible. Net Zero targets should not be used to remove these options from the discussion.
NGET recently announced a further consultation on the project, between 8 July and 11 August 2024. The focus on the consultation will be on changes proposed since the last consultation.
While East Suffolk Council welcomes further genuine engagement with stakeholders and the local community on Sea Link and all projects, it is important to ensure that the consultation is fair and provides a real ability for those affected to engage.
East Suffolk Council is disappointed by the length of the consultation comprising only five weeks – with previous consultations providing at least eight weeks – and has raised concerns that it is too short and does not allow the local community and stakeholders sufficient time to meaningfully engage with the consultation.
The timing of the consultation also clashes with the summer period when people may be on holiday and parishes may not to have regular meetings planned, making reviewing the material and drafting of a response more challenging.
While advance notice of the consultation by NGET was welcomed, the provision of a longer consultation period to facilitate a fairer and more effective consultation was requested.
Councillor Tom Daly, East Suffolk’s Cabinet member for Energy and Climate Change, said:
“Public perception of the process of NGET activities is key, as is made clear in the Sealink Community Update (April 2024).
“This very short timescale for meaningful consultation as Development Consent Order (DCO) options are refined, threatens positive public perception and effective engagement. It will be difficult to justify such a short engagement period that may not even span parish/town council meeting cycles, at this holiday time of year, as effective engagement. I would appeal to NGET to rethink this timeframe and extend, at least to the eight weeks taken previously”.