The Secretary of State has written to the Health and Safety Executive seeking clarification on Hazardous Substances Consent.

The Secretary of State has written to Halite Energy Limited seeking clarification on proposed parameters for the underground gas storage facility.

The following documents have now been published:

Representations received during the second round of consultation, which closed on Thursday 11 September 2014 and
comments on the first round of consultation

Further clarification from the Secretary of State on geological information following correspondence received from the Protect Wyre Group.

Clarification from the Secretary of State on geological information following correspondence received from the Protect Wyre Group has been published.

Further geological information supplementing the Independent Geological Assessor’s Report, currently being consulted on pursuant to rule 20(2) of the Infrastructure Planning (Examination Procedure) Rules 2010.

Protect Wyre group’s letter requesting this information has also been published.

The Secretary of state’s consultation on the representations received during the first round of consultation and other relevant information, including the Independent Geological Assessor’s Report will close on 11 September 2014. The consultation letter can be downloaded from here.

Please note that the first round of consultation closed on Friday 9 May 2014 and no further representations are invited by the Secretary of State at this stage. However, as indicated in the Statement of Matters, an opportunity to comment on the representations received and other relevant information, including the independent Geological Assessor’s Report (once available), will be given to interested parties in due course.

The geological information requested by the secretary of state on 23 May 2014 is also available.

Please note that the first round of consultation closed on Friday 9 May 2014 and no further representations are invited by the Secretary of State at this stage. However, as indicated in the Statement of Matters, an opportunity to comment on the representations received and other relevant information, including the independent Geological Assessor’s Report (once available), will be given to interested parties in due course.

Further to the Secretary of States letter dated 1 May 2014, the Secretary of State has written to Halite Energy Limited and requested further geological data that the assessor requires.

Following the Order of the High Court (Patterson J) made on 17 January 2014 quashing the decision of the Secretary of State dated 9 April 2013 to refuse the application by Halite Energy Limited for development consent for the proposed underground gas storage facility including associated development in Preesall, Lancashire, the Secretary of State must now re-determine that application.

The Secretary of State has written to interested parties with a Statement of Matters with respect to further written representations (pursuant to rule 20 (2) of the Infrastructure Planning (Examination Procedure) Rules 2010), setting out the matters in relation to which the Secretary of State considers further representations are needed.

Please direct representations to the National Infrastructure Consents Team at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (see letter for details). The deadline for representations is no later than Friday 9 May 2014.

All new representations will be published on this website in due course, and there will be an opportunity to comment on representations.

All previous correspondance received by the Secretary of State following the decision on 9 April 2013 can be viewed here.

The Secretary of State has written to Halite Energy Limited to clarify what geological data the geological assessor will require from Halite Energy Limited in order to provide expert advice to the Secretary of State and to produce the geological report.

The report by the Panel of Examining Inspectors was republished on 15 April 2013, because the copy published on 9 April 2013 omitted Appendix D. We apologise for this error.

The Secretary of State has refused development consent for this application. For further information, please refer to the Secretary of State’s Decision Letter and report by the Panel of Examining Inspectors (Republished 15 April 2013, to include Appendix D).

Correspondence received after the close of the examination:
Report by Dieter Helm
Report by Chris Le Fevre
Post examination correspondence

Other documentation:
Letter sent to interested parties by the Planning Inspectorate

The examination closed on 24 October, see the section 99 letter for further information.

Following the second Issue Specific Hearing into the Development Consent Order, the applicant has submitted revised draft DCO documents and S106 Agreement (ZIP 10MB).

The appendix to the written representation of Protect Wyre Group, which is made up of letters they have received from members of the public, has now been published on our website in four parts. Please note that these files are large and may take longer to download on slower internet connections.

Part 1 (PDF 69 MB)
Part 2 (PDF 31 MB)
Part 3 (PDF 42 MB)
Part 4 (PDF 18 MB)

The Panel has issued an agenda for the Issue-Specific Hearings at the North Euston Hotel on 18 and 19 September.

The Panel have sent a letter to all Interested Parties, with details of open floor and compulsory acquisition hearings in October. View the Panel’s letter (PDF 63 KB).

The applicant has submitted a request seeking amendments to plans for the brine discharge pipeline. The Examining Authority has considered this request and asked for further information under rule 17 of the Examination Procedure Rules. View the Examining Authority’s letter (PDF 61 KB) and the original request (ZIP 63 MB).

The Panel have written to specific Interested Parties to request whether, and if so how, recent amendments to the Habitats Regulations affect their representations made on this application. A deadline of 7 September has been set for receipt of this information.

The Panel have decided to hold two issue specific hearings in September, and have sent a letter with the details to all interested parties.

The panel have sent a letter requesting that Halite Energy supply further information.

The Examining Authority have sent a letter to all Interested Parties and varied the timetable for the examination. The Issue Specific Hearing originally timetabled for 22 August 2012 has been cancelled.

The second round of questions have now been issued by the Examining Authority. This also includes the deadline for requesting further hearings.

The Examining Authority has issued the agenda for the issue specific hearing taking place on 24 July.