Representation by Port of London Authority (Port of London Authority)
- Date submitted
- 20 June 2024
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
1 BACKGROUND 1.1 The Port of London Authority (the "PLA") is the statutory harbour authority for the tidal Thames (the "River"). The River covers approximately 95 miles from Teddington to the North Sea between Clacton in Essex and Margate in Kent. The PLA's statutory functions include responsibility for conservancy, including dredging and improvement of the River; managing public navigation and ensuring navigational safety and controlling vessel movements. Its consent is required for the construction or carrying out of all works in the River, which includes dredging of the River. The PLA's area of jurisdiction and regulatory powers are found primarily in the Port of London Act 1968 (the "1968 Act"). The proposed wind farm lies outside of the PLA’s landownership and limits under the 1968 Act, however the PLA’s functions include the promotion of the use of the River for freight and passengers as an important and sustainable transport corridor and access to the River is therefore a key concern for the PLA. 1.2 The River is home to the Port of London which is the country's biggest port and its contribution to international trade is critical, handling over 50 million tonnes of goods each year. The Port is expected to grow and by 2050 between 70-80million tonnes will be handled at the Port annually (which represents around a 30-60% increase on 2022 levels). The port and river complex delivers an annual gross value added economic contribution of £4.5 billion with investment between 2020 and 2025 projected to exceed £1 billion. This approach is supported by the National Policy Statement for Ports (January 2012) which encourages the promotion of successful major port developments which are essential for trade and economic growth long-term. It is supported specifically in respect of the River by the PLA's Thames Vision 2050, which in relation to the theme "Trading Thames" sets out priorities to enable future growth of the Port. In addition, the River is the UK's busiest inland waterway for the movement of freight, thus facilitating sustainable transport of goods within the UK. 1.3 It is therefore imperative that the existing and future capacity and operation of the Port of London are not compromised during construction and operation of the Five Estuaries Offshore Wind Farm Project ("VE"). 1.4 The PLA has reviewed the application documents and has comments on the draft Development Consent Order (“dDCO”) and other application documents. Full details of the PLA's concerns will be provided in its Written Representations to the Examination and will include the broad issues set out below. The PLA reserve the right to alter, amend or expand on its concerns through the Examination process. 2 THE PLA'S CONCERNS 2.1 VE is outside of the PLA’s landownership and statutory limits under the 1968 Act, including its licensing area, but the export cable corridor (the "ECC") crosses the deep water routes (the Sunk and Trinity which lead to Black Deep) (the "DWR") into the Port of London. The DWR is the only approach available for larger vessels to access the Port of London. The DWR are currently both used for entry and exit into/from the Port of London but in the future, as vessels get bigger it may be necessary for one DWR route to be used for entry and one for exit. 2.2 VE works have the potential to cause short and long term impacts to navigation and to the capacity and operation of the Port of London, particularly from the works associated with the ECC. These impacts include: • Permanent impacts because of VE cable depths • Temporary impacts from cable laying and repair • Permanent impacts from interaction with third party schemes (cable crossings) • Temporary impacts from interaction with third party schemes (simultaneous operations) • Permanent impacts from the location of the offshore sub station platforms • Temporary and permanent impacts from the safety zones • Temporary and permanent impacts from dredging • Temporary impacts on the PLA’s onshore navigational equipment The range of impacts vary from vessel displacement and delays to placing a constraint on the size of vessel that can enter the Port of London and therefore the capacity of the Port of London. The VE application needs to provide clarity and confidence that long term access/egress to the Port of London would be maintained and that short term impacts during construction and maintenance would be kept to a minimum. The PLA would recommend that a plan is produced for the area where the VE cables would cross the DWR which is a certified document and which sets out the relevant parameters and constraints, the applicant’s approach to cable laying / crossings in this area and which demonstrates that the PLA’s requirements can be met. Permanent impacts as a result of VE cable depths 2.3 The depth of the VE cables where they cross the DWR are critical. The PLA requires access for vessels with a draught of 20m at the DWR and accounting for 10% under keel clearance this means that a water depth of -22m Chart Datum (“CD”) must be maintained by VE. There must be certainty in the VE application that this requirement will be met because if it is not, then it will limit the quantum of trade within the Port. The impact of this would be significant, detrimentally impacting the future of the UK’s largest port. Temporary impacts from cable laying and repair 2.4 The approach to cable laying needs to be clear and there must be a commitment to the quickest method of cable burial where the ECC crosses the DWR to reduce the impacts to shipping during construction. Construction and maintenance vessels must not hinder access into the Port. Deep drafted vessels to terminals within the Port of London are tidally constrained, so a small deviation to their schedule could result in them not having enough water for their passage to the berth, thus delaying them until the next tide approximately 12 hours later. Permanent impacts from interaction with third party schemes (cable crossings) 2.5 Cable crossings have the potential to impact on water depths and, as set out in the application documents, it will be necessary for VE to cross Neuconnect within the ECC. If consented, SeaLink, Kent-Suffolk SCDI and the North Falls export cable will all need to cross the VE cables. The PLA must have confidence that where VE crosses Neuconnect the required water depth of -22m CD will be maintained and that the VE cable will be buried at sufficient depth or placed in areas of deeper water so that any cables that cross VE in the future also maintain the required water depth of -22m CD. Temporary impacts from interaction with third party schemes (simultaneous operations) 2.6 The North falls export cables, Neuconnect and SeaLink all intersect the offshore ECC and there is the potential for simultaneous operations occurring during installation and maintenance. For the reasons set out above construction and maintenance vessels must not hinder access into the Port. Permanent impacts from the offshore substation platforms 2.7 The PLA also has concerns with the location of the offshore substation platforms. The works description for Work No 2 suggests that, if built, these would be placed within the EEC, notwithstanding that the array areas have been assessed for the location of these works in the Environmental Statement ("ES"). The PLA would have significant concerns about the offshore substation platforms being placed within the ECC because it could result in them being placed along the access to the DWR forming a physical obstacle for vessels to navigate around. Safety Zones 2.8 The Safety Zone Statement (APP-230) provides information on the safety zone application that will be made to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. The information provided in the Safety Zone Statement differs to that provided in the ES and it would appear from the ES that a safety zone would be put around the export cables. 2.9 It needs to be clear whether a safety zone would be required for the ECC and if one is required, it needs to be assessed including within the Navigational Risk Assessment (APP-240). Any safety zones must not result in deep draught vessels being delayed when entering or exiting the Port via the DWR for the reasons set out in paragraph 2.4 above. Dredging 2.10 In order to install the cables within the ECC it will also be necessary to dredge. The Marine Licence allows for up to 9,214,386m3 of inert material to be deposited within Works No 2 (the ECC), 2A and 3. Fig 1.11 of the Offshore Project Description (APP-069) shows that the ECC disposal site is along the entirety of the ECC including between the Arrays. There is a concern about a lack of controls in relation to the placing of inert material within the ECC. What controls are in place for example to stop the applicant from placing material in the ECC where it crosses the DWR? This could create high spots which ultimately impact on access to the Port of London by reducing navigable depth. Mitigation of potential impacts to shipping and navigation. 2.11 To mitigate potential impacts to shipping and navigation, the applicant places a significant amount of weight on embedded mitigations and documents, which will be produced post consent. These include: (a) Detailed cable burial risk assessment (CBRA) (b) Development of, and adherence to, a Cable Specification and Installation Plan (CSIP) (c) Navigation and Installation Plan (NIP) 2.12 The outline documents could, alongside protective provisions for the PLA, provide the comfort that the PLA requires that at the detailed design stage, the DWR into the Port of London will be protected now and into the future. As will be explained in the PLA's further Written Representations, amendments are, however, required to the outline documents and protective provisions provided for the PLA need to be added to the dDCO to remove the current uncertainty. In the absence of these changes, decisions that are made by others in this DCO (such as MMO or MCA) could have significant ramifications for the Port of London. Temporary impacts on the PLA's onshore navigational equipment 2.13 The PLA are identified in Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the Book of Reference (APP-026) in relation to Plots 01-001, 01-002 and 01-003. These references relate to the PLA’s right of access (alongside a leasehold interest) in a radar site. The radar site, known as Holland Haven, is located to the south west of plot 01-003. The access route to the PLA’s radar site utilises plots 01-001 and 01-002. 2.14 Through the 1968 Act, the PLA has the primary responsibility of maintaining safe access and managing and supporting the safety of navigation for all river users on the River. In order for the PLA to oversee safe navigation on the River, the Holland Haven radar site forms part of a network of 18 towers located between Holland Haven / Margate and Tower Hamlets / Greenwich. Equipment is installed on these towers such as radar, CCTV, weather monitoring equipment and microwave communications systems. There are various sub tenants and licensees at the Holland Haven radar site with rights to the PLA’s tower that is situated on the property – telecom operators with statutory rights under the Electronic Communications Code. 2.15 Plots 01-001, 01-002 and 01-003 are identified on sheet no.1 of the Works Plans – Onshore (APP-010) as “Works No. 4B – Beach access & TCC”. Schedule 1, Part 1 of the dDCO (APP-024) states in relation to Work No. 4B “Construction of a temporary construction compound and laydown area (beach Works TCC), improvement and use of existing access routes including creation of construction access to Work Nos. 3, 4 and 5, works to junctions and visibility splays, temporary construction working areas and laydown area.” The Land Plans – Onshore (APP-008) show plots 01-001 and 01-002 as temporary possession (non exclusive) and plot 01-003 as temporary possession. 2.16 The Statement of Reasons (APP-030) advises at paragraph 3.4.2 that “Work no. 4B (Plots 01-001, 01-002, 01-003, 01-004, 01-005, 01-006) provides for access to the beach and adjoining land to support any works which may be required during construction. Access for other users will remain open during construction, except for when construction equipment is being mobilised and demobilised, when short temporary access restrictions such as marshalling may be required to ensure public safety.” 2.17 The PLA requires access to its radar sites 24 hour a day, 7 days a week. This includes access at very short notice, in an emergency. Access may be required for larger vehicles, including cranes to undertake repairs. This unrestricted access is required in order to maintain continuous coverage to support navigational safety. The PLA should be notified in advance of any temporary access restrictions and it should be ensured that during any restricted access periods appropriate access is maintained for PLA personnel and vehicles. 2.18 Article 30 “Temporary use of land for carrying out the authorised development” allows the undertaker to enter on and take temporary possession of plots 01-001 and 01-002 for “access to facilitate construction of the authorised development” and whilst Article 30(8) prohibits the undertaker from compulsorily acquiring, acquiring new rights over or imposing restrictive covenants over plots 01-001, 01-002 and 01-003, there is nothing in Article 30 preventing the extinguishment of the PLA’s existing rights of access. This is of particular concern to the PLA given that Article 32(b) “Statutory Undertakers” allows for the extinguishment of the PLA’s right of access. In addition, Article 14 “Temporary Restriction of use of streets” would allow for the Holland Haven Country Park car park access road to be temporarily closed and to be used as a temporary working site. 2.19 Article 10 “Street Works” allows the undertaker to carry out various activities to the Holland Haven Country Park car park access road. The PLA has no in principle concerns with works being undertaken to the road and recognise that the improvements that may be undertaken to the road may be of benefit to the PLA in the longer term however, it must be ensured that any services that the PLA currently benefits from (electricity and broadband) are maintained at all times and that there is no disruption in supply. 2.20 At this stage it is unclear what plant, equipment, materials etc might be stored or buildings erected within the construction compound/laydown area. Buildings and storage over a certain height and use of cranes or other tall plant has the potential to interfere with the PLA’s equipment and cause loss of service. It needs to be ensured that nothing is placed within the compound that could obscure the view of the water, links or VHF from the tower. As currently drafted the PLA has no way of being consulted on any detailed plans for the layout/use of the construction compound and therefore the first time the PLA knows about the use of the construction compound could be when a loss of service occurs. This would not be appropriate. If a planning application had been submitted to the Council for the construction compound (rather than a DCO application) the PLA would normally secure a condition that requires full details to be provided of the maximum heights within the compounds, details of cranes etc. The PLA would then be consulted on the submitted details and be provided with the opportunity to provide comments. 2.21 Therefore, whilst in the Statutory Undertakes Position Statement (APP-028) it is stated in relation to plot 01-001 that “No Port of London Authority apparatus will be impacted" the PLA would assert that this has yet to be demonstrated in the application documents and the dDCO gives the Applicant powers to cause significant impacts to the PLA’s apparatus.