Representation by Norfolk County Council as promoter of Norwich Western Link Road Scheme (Norfolk County Council as promoter of Norwich Western Link Road Scheme)
- Date submitted
- 14 November 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
This relevant representation is made by Norfolk County Council (“NCC”) in its capacity as the promoter of the Norwich Western Link (“NWL”) road scheme. The NWL is a proposed 3.9km length of new dual carriageway which would connect the A1270 Broadland Northway (formerly known as the Norwich Northern Distributor Road) to the A47 to the west of Norwich, completing a fully dualled orbital route around the city, in combination with the planned dualling of the A47 between North Tuddenham and Easton by National Highways, which is due to open in 2025. In 2023 NCC intends to submit a planning application for the NWL and to make statutory orders (a compulsory purchase order and side roads order) under the Highways Act 1980. If planning permission is granted and the statutory orders confirmed, NCC would start construction in 2024, with the NWL open for use in 2026. NCC notes (having observed a section 56 site notice affixed on land required for the NWL) that the proposed Order limits and Order land required for the onshore export cable element of the Sheringham and Dudgeon Extension Projects DCO (“SDEP DCO”) overlap with part of the proposed alignment of, and proposed red line boundary for, the NWL (see Sheets 24 – 28 of the SDEP DCO Land Plans (APP-008)). See also, in particular, the Key Plan and Sheets 25 and 26 of the SDEP DCO Access to Works Plans (APP-014) which indicate that Equinor requires access for construction and early works which will have an impact on the proposed NWL; and the entry in Schedule 5 to the draft SDEP DCO (APP-024), which indicates that “approximately 100 metres of the Norwich Western Link Road as shown between points 25c and 25d on Sheet 25 of the Streets (to be temporarily stopped up) Plan” would be affected. Equinor, as promoter of the SDEP DCO, has engaged with NCC as promoter of the NWL, at a number of informal liaison meeting which has been helpful to discuss the obvious interface between these two linear infrastructure projects. The purpose of this relevant representation is to request that Equinor now engages formally with NCC to reach an agreed and coordinated position on how the following matters will be dealt with, in order to enable both the NWL and the SEDP projects to be brought forward in a coherent manner: • compatibility of scheme designs, strategy for managing overlapping work areas, and mechanisms for reciprocal design approvals and potential cost sharing; • construction methodology, including access and timescales; • strategy for communicating with landowners and occupiers affected by both projects; • approach to the acquisition of land and rights over land, where land / rights are required for both projects in the same area; • approach to the temporary stopping up of highways (including the NWL) and public rights of way; and • potential for transfer of benefit to NCC of certain elements of the development to be authorised by the SDEP DCO; To facilitate the above, NCC requires: • protective provisions to be included in the SDEP DCO; • a co-operation agreement to be entered into to facilitate co-existence of the SDEP and NWL projects. NCC reserves the right to make further representations as the DCO examination progresses.