One of the objectives of our stage one, non-statutory, consultation was to seek your views on our emerging proposals. All feedback that we received will be considered by the project team and used to help us further develop the projects.
All projects change to a greater or lesser extent as they progress through the planning process. For example, when our Norwich to Tilbury reinforcement was launched in 2022, we were proposing approximately 170 km of overhead line and 10 km of underground cable through the Dedham Vale AONB. As a result of the feedback given, and further technical work undertaken following the consultation, an additional stage of consultation was held in Summer 2023. At this consultation, we presented updated proposals which included an increase in the amount of underground cable proposed to approximately 25 km.
Any changes that we make to our projects are made due to a combination of feedback and technical work. Feedback alone is not sufficient for us to make a change. The feedback provided must be backed up by technical assessments, and any change to our proposals must, on balance, be considered to have a lesser overall impact than our previous proposals. Whilst a potential change may have a lesser impact on one specific factor, it may ultimately lead to increased impact in other areas.
Examples of the technical factors that we consider include environment, landscape, engineering, transport, and heritage, amongst others.
We will present updated proposals for EGL 3 and EGL 4 during our next stage of consultation, planned for 2025.