National Grid has to operate in an ever more stringent planning environment. The implementation of the Planning Act 2008 has resulted in all Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects being captured by the Planning Act. The result of this has been a greater responsibility on a developer to provide evidence that a full and open engagement has been undertaken with both statutory and non statutory organisations and particularly the public at large and further that opinions expressed by third parties have been properly noted and where possible used to influence the final design submitted for consent to the Planning Inspectorate.
National Grid is committed to being the industry leader in the implementation of the requirements of the Planning Act. To this end, where National Grid is required to construct an above ground installation, it is imperative that they investigate fully all alternatives available to minimise the impact of the development on its environment and those who live in that environment. As part of the early stages of the public consultations on the Don Valley Power CCS project, preliminary compressor site design drawings and animations were created for three different design options:
- Contemporary
- Farmstead
- Landscaped.
The overwhelming preference from the public was for the landscape design (i.e. the environmental option).
Benefits
National Grid will be able to use the resulting 3D animations and models for presentations during public consultations, as appropriate, where projects are being planned, and for submissions to the Planning Inspectorate to gain a Development Consent Order, with a view to improve the efficiency of the National Grid Compressor facilities in the future.
