Norwich to Tilbury National Grid pylon consultation has 'legal deficiencies'

A consultation document for plans to build high voltage electricity pylons through Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex needs to be rewritten to include other options, a barrister has said.

The planned 112 mile-long (180km) power line would run from Norwich, in Norfolk, to Tilbury, in Essex.

Charles Banner QC said there were "legal deficiencies" with the consultation.

National Grid said it was "listening carefully to the views" of the public.

It said it felt the proposals met its regulatory obligations to the government, which has a target to connect up to 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030.

Meanwhile, South Norfolk Council accused National Grid of acting like "no-one lives in Norfolk".

Councillors said the utilities company had failed to provide enough information about its proposals to locals.

It comes after Norfolk County Council announced it was against the scheme, which has also faced opposition from three Suffolk councils, six East Anglian MPs and campaign groups.

Mr Banner, a barrister employed by campaigners against the plans, said: "The lay public consultees have not been provided with anything approaching a sufficient level of information to enable them to make an intelligent comparison of the environmental impacts of the preferred option compared to options which involve no, or considerably fewer, pylons."

He added: "If left uncorrected these legal deficiencies will infect the later statutory consultation."

The pylons are part of a proposed 400kV electricity transmission line between Norwich and a new Bramford substation near Ipswich, and then to Tilbury in south Essex, called the East Anglia Green Energy Enablement project.

National Grid said the line was needed to carry electricity from offshore wind turbines.

It has proposed to run the cables underground through the Dedham Vale area of outstanding natural beauty on the Essex/Suffolk border, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Three Essex councils - the county council, Braintree District and Brentwood Borough - have this week also indicated their opposition to a new power line that would cut through countryside in their districts.

Lesley Wagland OBE, Essex County Council cabinet member for infrastructure, said: "We believe that new offshore generated electricity should be transmitted offshore, which is why we need an offshore grid.

"Such an alternative approach could avoid all the physical constraints of an above or below-ground solution."

National Grid said it would take people's comments into consideration as it developed the proposals, and there would be another opportunity to comment on the proposals before an application is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in late 2024.

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