National Grid Ventures has announced a targeted four-week consultation on the LionLink project, running from 7 July to 5 August – right in the middle of the summer holiday period.
The company says the consultation is intended to gather views on a number of localised changes to the project, following feedback received during its January statutory consultation. The full consultation documents are available at Saxmundham Library, Southwold Library, and in the LionLink online document library. HERE.
For a quick read HERE is the brochure.
The proposed changes include:
- An alternative landfall in Walberswick – G3 [There is no appropriate location at Walberswick, and this third one now impinges on other housing plus nightingale and nightjar nesting areas].
- Options for works to Benhall Railway Bridge and its inclusion into the project boundary (Draft Order Limits) [This is to support Sea Link’s application for this inappropriate access route].
- Widening the project boundary (Draft Order Limits) at Lymballs Lane.
- A small number of refinements to the project boundary (Draft Order Limits) at access points from local roads and our construction areas.
Many local residents are likely to view these as little more than incremental changes, rather than any meaningful revision of the project. National Grid Ventures says it is listening to the community. Yet one of the most controversial changes is the inclusion of Benhall Bridge within the project’s red line Draft Order Limits. Councils and campaigners strongly opposed this access route throughout the Sea Link DCO process, maintaining that a northern access route would cause far less environment and community impact.
Phil Smith from the WALL campaign sums up many of these concerns in his BBC Radio Suffolk interview and the accompanying BBC article:
There are no open days only one online webinar on Tuesday 21 July at 6–7.30pm. You can register to attend HERE.
After the webinar, when we have studied the full documents, SEAS and WALL will post some guidelines on how to respond.