National Grid informed the Planning Inspectorate that it is considering which aspects of the scheme will be applied for under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and which will be applied for under the Planning Act 2008, and the possibility of applying for some aspects of the scheme through both regimes.

If an element of the proposed scheme forms part of a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP), then development consent must be obtained in accordance with s31 of the Planning Act 2008 as amended (?PA 2008?).
In relation to the proposal to include some elements of the project in both PA 2008 and Town and Country Planning Act (TCPA) applications; in order to include these elements within the PA 2008 application, National Grid (NG) would need to justify why it considers that these elements form part of the NSIP, as the definition of associated development has a very limited application in Wales and will not apply in the case of this application. The justification for their inclusion in the PA 2008 application would need to be consistent with the fact that applications for planning permission under the TCPA were also being made, and any contradictions in approach to what formed part of the NSIP itself, and what was not part of the NSIP and therefore could not be included in the application, should be avoided.
Using an example of a substation, where an application under the PA 2008 had not yet been made, it seems it would be possible for a TCPA application to be made. If this is on the basis, however, that the substation did not form part of a future NSIP, it would be difficult to see how it could then be included within a PA 2008 application on the basis that it did form part of an NSIP.
In relation to NGs proposal to provide a single Environmental Statement for both NSIP and TCPA elements of the scheme, each authority will need to be able to distinguish the environmental information relating to the development for which consent from them is sought, and also the cumulative effects of that development with the other elements, and any other reasonably foreseeable developments, as per our Advice Note 9 regarding the Rochdale Envelope approach: attachment 1