Public consultation second round for Hinkley Point C

During the Hinkley Point C connection project, National Grid distributed mailings to households within a consultation zone (1 km of the proposed route corridor options) to raise attention for the public consultation. To avoid the perception of promotional flyers, National Grid printed the project name on the envelopes together with the National Grid logo. Some 37,000 letters were sent out together with a project summary leaflet.

Drop-in events with exhibitions were organised to inform the public. At each venue, events were held twice so that scheduling difficulties would not prevent people from attending. At these events, National Grid staff represented different disciplines including construction, planning, environmental assessment, property, and EMF.

To ensure that the documents, which are needed for the public to participate in the consultation, were accessible for everyone, various formats were chosen: documents were put on a website, distributed during the drop-in events, and displayed in public libraries together with information posters.

In parallel, project briefing meetings with town and parish councils, local authorities, and with local MPs were conducted. Non-statuary consultants, which had been identified with the help of the key stakeholder group, included environmental and nature conservation NGOs, farmer associations, and business representatives.

Similar to the distribution of the documents, National Grid offered different format options for the submission of comments. These included email, a hard-copy feedback form, an online feedback form, telephone access, and letters. National Grid received over 8,000 pieces of feedback.