What happens next
The Preliminary Meeting will be held on Tuesday 17 October 2023. Invitations to this meeting have been sent to Interested Parties.
The Preliminary Meeting is held in public and concerns procedural matters only. It is not essential to attend the Preliminary Meeting. Whether or not an Interested Party chooses to attend the Preliminary Meeting, they will still be sent details of how to further take part in the Examination.
The Procedural Decision, setting the timetable for the Examination including deadlines for receipt of detailed Written Representations and for comments on the Relevant Representations made by other Interested Parties, will be made after the Preliminary Meeting and will be published on this project page. It will also be available on request from [email protected] and our helpline: 0303 444 5000.
If you are an Interested Party, either because you are one of the specific bodies cited in s102 of the Planning Act 2008 or have submitted a Relevant Representation, you will receive notifications about the Examination and a copy of the Secretary of State’s decision on the application once that is made.
If you have a legal interest in land affected by a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project and:
- have not been identified by the Applicant; and
- did not register to become an Interested Party;
then you can make a request to the Examining Authority to become an Interested Party under s102A of the Planning Act 2008.
Timeline (14 items)

The Examining Authority has published a response (PDF, 110KB) to the Applicant’s notification (PDF, 194KB) of its intention to submit a request for a change to the application.
A note of a site inspection (PDF, 107KB) carried out on 18 and 19 September has been published.
The Examination Library (PDF, 354 KB) has been updated.
Please register to take part in the Preliminary Meeting, Open Floor Hearing or Issue Specific Hearings by 23:59 on Tuesday 10 October 2023. The details of these events are described in the notification of Preliminary Meeting (Rule 6) letter. (PDF, 372KB).

The notification of Preliminary Meeting (Rule 6 letter) has been sent.
The letter includes the draft Examination Timetable, initial assessment of principal issues and other related matters.
Register to take part in the Preliminary Meeting, Open Floor Hearing or Issue Specific Hearings by 23:59 on Tuesday 10 October 2023. The details of these events are described in the letter.
If you have any questions please contact [email protected]

The notification of Preliminary Meeting (Rule 6 letter) has been sent Read the letter
The letter also includes the draft Examination Timetable and Initial Assessment of Principal Issues.

The Examining Authority has issued a Procedural Decision (PDF, 257KB) requesting information and updated documents from the Applicant.
The registration period has been extended for a small number of people, if you have received a notice from the Applicant and would like to comment on the proposed development. Please contact [email protected]

The registration period has been extended for a small number of people, if you have received a notice from the Applicant and would like to comment on the proposed development. Please contact [email protected].


On 21 July 2023 some registration comments were published on to our website. These were published in error and have been removed from the website.
Once we have completed our checks and received documentation from the Applicant all valid representations will be published within the next ten days.
If you wish to sign up to email updates you will receive a notification when these have been published.




This application was received by the Planning Inspectorate on 28 April 2023.
The application documents will be made available on the project page of this website if the application is accepted for examination.
It is for the Applicant to decide whether or not application documents can be published upon submission (see government’s Planning Act 2008: guidance on the Pre-application process).


The application has been withdrawn. Please see the Applicant’s letter (PDF, 124 KB).