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Helios Renewable Energy Project Examination timetable

The examination timetable shows the dates of events and deadlines for submissions.

If you have registered to have your say, you can do this in the examination stage.

The examination stage

The examination opened on 3 December 2024

The examination is expected to close on 3 June 2025

Have your say

Upcoming deadlines and events

13 January 2025 - Deadline 2 (D2)

Open

For receipt by the ExA of:

  • Comments on any additional information/submissions received by Deadline 1
  • Comments on the Applicant’s draft suggestions for site inspections
  • Local Impact Reports (LIR) from relevant local planning authorities
  • Written Representations (WR) and Summaries of WRs exceeding 1500 words
  • SoCGs requested by the ExA (see Annex F, section 3) and updated SoCGs submitted at Procedural Deadline A where any substantive updates have been made
  • Statement of Commonality for all SoCGs
  • PADs requested by the ExA (see Annex F section 4) which were not submitted at Procedural Deadline A or any updated PADs
  • The Applicant’s updated documents (see Annex F, section 6 to the Rule 6 Letter (PD-001))
  • Any further information requested by ExA. Any further information requested by the ExA under Rule 17 of The Infrastructure Planning (Examination Procedure) Rules 2010

27 January 2025 - Deadline 3 (D3)

For receipt by the ExA of:

  • The Applicant’s updated documents (see Annex F, section 6 to the Rule 6 Letter (PD-001))
  • Updated PADs where any substantive changes have been made
  • Comments on any information. requested/submissions received by Deadline 2
  • Any further information requested by ExA. Any further information requested by the ExA under Rule 17 of The Infrastructure Planning (Examination Procedure) Rules 2010

6 February 2025 - Publication of ExQ1

Publication by the ExA of:

  • The ExA's First Written Questions (ExQ1)

26 February 2025 - Deadline 4 (D4)

For receipt by the ExA of:

  • Responses to the ExA’s First Written Questions (ExQ1)
  • Comments on any information requested/submissions received by Deadline 3
  • The Applicant’s updated documents (see Annex F, section 6 to the Rule 6 Letter (PD-001))
  • Updated PADs where any substantive changes have been made
  • Any further information requested by ExA. Any further information requested by the ExA under Rule 17 of the Examination Rules

10 March 2025 - Hearings

Time reserved for hearings and Site Inspections w/c 10 March 2025

  • Issue Specific Hearings (ISH) (if required)
  • Compulsory Acquisition Hearing 2 (CAH2) (if required)
  • Open Floor Hearing 2 (OFH2) (if required)
  • Site Inspections (SI1) (if required)

20 March 2025 - Deadline 5 (D5)

For receipt by the ExA of:

  • Post-Hearing Submissions, comprising written summaries of oral submissions made at the Hearings held on the week commencing 10 March 2025
  • Comments on any information requested/submissions received by Deadline 4
  • The Applicant’s updated documents (see Annex F, section 6 to the Rule 6 Letter (PD-001))
  • Updated PADs where any substantive changes have been made.
  • Any further information requested by ExA. Any further information requested by the ExA under Rule 17 of the Examination Rules

27 March 2025 - Publication of ExQ2

Publication by the ExA of:

  • The ExA's Second Written Questions (ExQ2)

9 April 2025 - Deadline 6 (D6)

For receipt by the ExA of:

  • Responses to the ExA’s Second Written Questions (ExQ2) (if these were issued)
  • Comments on any information requested/submissions received by Deadline 5
  • The Applicant’s updated documents (see Annex F, section 6 to the Rule 6 Letter (PD-001))
  • Updated PADs where any substantive changes have been made
  • Any further information requested by ExA. Any further information requested by the ExA under Rule 17 of the Examination Rules.

14 April 2025 - Hearings 2

Time reserved for hearings w/c 14 April 2025

  • Issue Specific Hearings (ISH) (if required)
  • Compulsory Acquisition Hearing 3 (CAH3) (if required)

24 April 2025 - Deadline 7 (D7)

For receipt by the ExA of:

  • Post-Hearing Submissions, comprising written summaries of oral submissions made at the Hearings held on the w/c 14 April 2025 (if these hearings were held)
  • Comments on any information requested/submissions received by Deadline 6
  • The Applicant’s updated documents (see Annex F, section 6 to the Rule 6 Letter (PD-001))
  • Updated PADs where any substantive changes have been made
  • Any further information requested by ExA. Any further information requested by the ExA under Rule 17 of the Examination Rules

2 May 2025 - Publications by ExA

Publication by the ExA of:

  • The ExA's Third Written Questions (ExQ3) (if required)
  • The ExA's commentary n, or schedule of changes to, the dDCO (if required)
  • Report on the Implications for European Sites (RIES) and any associated questions (if required)

16 May 2025 - Deadline 8 (D8)

For receipt by the ExA of:

  • Responses to the ExA’s Third Written Questions (ExQ3) (if these were issued)
  • Comments on the ExA’s commentary on, or schedule of changes to, the dDCO (if these were issued)
  • Comments on Report on the Implications for European Sites (RIES) and any associated questions (if it were issued)
  • Comments on any information requested/submissions received by Deadline 7
  • The Applicant’s updated documents (see Annex F, section 6 to the Rule 6 Letter (PD-001))
  • Updated PADs where any substantive changes have been made
  • Any further information requested by ExA. Any further information requested by the ExA under Rule 17 of the Examination Rules

23 May 2025 - Deadline 9 (D9)

For receipt by the ExA of:

  • Comments on any information requested/submissions received by Deadline 8
  • Final DCO and Explanatory Memorandum. Final DCO to be submitted by the Applicant in the SI template. Applicant to provide the email notification from https://publishing.legislation.gov.uk/validation confirming the document has successfully passed validation, and the PDF version of the SI validation report obtained from the link in the notification email. The Applicant should also provide a clean (all tracking removed) standalone MS Word version of the dDCO, with no header or cover page
  • Final updated BoR. Final BoR and schedule of changes to BoR
  • Final Statement of Reasons
  • Final SoCGs
  • Final Statement of Commonality of SoCG
  • List of matters not agreed where SoCG could not be finalised
  • Final Guide to the application
  • Final Status of Negotiations CA Schedule
  • Final Status of Negotiations with Statutory Undertakers
  • Final NPS tracker
  • Final Consents and Licences Position Statement
  • Final signed and dated section 106s
  • Final versions of any other of the Applicant’s documents that have been updated
  • Summary statement from the Applicant setting out any outstanding matters
  • Final PADs submitted by the relevant IPs
  • Any further information requested by ExA. Any further information requested by the ExA under Rule 17 of The Infrastructure Planning (Examination Procedure) Rules 2010

2 June 2025 - Deadline 10 (D10)

For receipt by the ExA of:

  • Any further information requested by ExA. Any further information requested by the ExA under Rule 17 of The Infrastructure Planning (Examination Procedure) Rules 2010.

3 June 2025 - Close of Examination

The ExA is under a duty to complete the Examination of the application by the end of the period of six months

Past deadlines and events

25 November 2024 - Procedural Deadline A

Closed

Procedural Deadline A

Deadline for receipt by the ExA of:

  • Written submissions on the Examination Procedure, including any submissions about the use of virtual methods.
  • Requests to be heard at the Preliminary Meeting.
  • Requests to be heard at Open Floor Hearing (OFH) 1.Provisionally scheduled for the evening of 3 December 2024.
  • Notification of wish to be heard at Issue Specific Hearing (ISH) 1. Provisionally scheduled for 4 December 2024 regarding the principal and scope of the Proposed Development, Socio-economic and environmental matters, and matters relating to the Development Consent Order (and the associated control documents).
  • Notification of wish to be heard at Compulsory Acquisition Hearing (CAH) 1. Provisionally scheduled for the morning of 5 December 2024. Requests by Affected Persons (defined in section 59(4) of the Planning Act 2008) to be heard at a Compulsory Acquisition Hearing (CAH). Please note that CAH1 is intended to only address the Applicant’s strategic case. If required, individual site-specific objections will be fully heard at a later CAH.
  • Submission of suggested locations for site inspections See Annex F, section 5
  • Submission of the Statements of Common Ground (SoCGs)To include the latest version of the SoCGs referred to in the Statement of Common Ground Status document [APP-238].
  • Submission of Principal Areas of Disagreement (PADs) By each IP participating in the SoCG process (see Annex F, section 4).

3 December 2024 - Preliminary Meeting (PM)

Closed

Preliminary Meeting (PM)

3 December 2024 - Open Floor Hearing 1 (OFH1)

Closed

Open Floor Hearing 1 (OFH1)

4 December 2024 - Issue Specific Hearing 1 (ISH1)

Closed

Issue Specific Hearing 1 (ISH1)

  • on the general principal of the Proposed Development, Environmental Matters, and the Development Consent Order

5 December 2024 - Compulsory Acquisition Hearing 1 (CAH1)

Closed

Compulsory Acquisition Hearing 1 (CAH1)

  • the Applicant's strategic case in respect of compulsory acquisition

13 December 2024 - Deadline 1 (D1)

Closed

For receipt by the ExA of:

  • Applicant’s suggested locations for site inspections to included suggestions for further Unaccompanied Site Inspections by the ExA and locations for any Accompanied Inspections
  • Comments on Relevant Representations (RR) and Additional Submissions (AS)
  • Summaries of all RR exceeding 1500 words
  • Notification by Statutory Parties of their wish to be considered as an IP by the ExA, where an RR has not been submitted
  • Notification of wish to have future correspondence electronically
  • Post-Hearing Submissions, comprising written summaries of oral submissions made at the Hearings held on the week commencing 2 December 2024
  • Requests to be heard at future Open Floor Hearing (OFH), if not already heard
  • Notification of wish to be heard at future Compulsory Acquisition Hearing (CAH). Requests by Affected Persons (defined in section 59(4) of the Planning Act 2008) to be heard at a Compulsory Acquisition Hearing (CAH)