Inadequacies of LTC consultation process 2020

Please note that the info below was up to date at the point when HE first attempted to submit their LTC DCO in 2020.  Since then HE have held another two consultations.  We have now published our 2022 Inadequacies of LTC Consultation representation.  

Read our document that highlights the inadequacies of LTC consultation process up to the first attempt to submit the LTC DCO application in 2020. From the very beginning to the end it has been diabolical.

Inadequacies of LTC consultation process

 

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If you are having any issues with viewing our 2020 response above it can also be downloaded as a pdf file here.

 

This document was shared with all impacted local authorities and the Planning Inspectorate in late October 2020.  We certainly do not believe that fair and adequate consultation has taken place right through the process.

Highways England spoke out about our Inadequacies of LTC Consultation (2020) in response to an article that New Civil Engineer wrote about our report in Nov 2020 – www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/lower-thames-crossing-consultation-labelled-misleading-confusing-and-not-fair-24-11-2020/.

“Highways England challenges every point highlighted by TCAG in the article, and we look forward to having the opportunity for the Planning Inspectorate to fully examine our proposals.“

Yet they are never keen to sit down and properly discuss things with us, most likely because we have the evidence to back up our claims!

For example, HE claimed:

“There was no bias for option C. Analysis showed route A was not as viable. For the report to suggest that consultation is about counting ‘votes’ is misleading – consultation is about getting feedback, not about generating votes, and the campaign petition from the 13,240 people they claimed were ‘discounted’ was not.“

Maybe they’d like to review the 2016 consultation document and highlight references to Location A.  The Government clearly asked them to consult upon Locations A and C, yet the consultation was clearly biased towards Location C, it was only just over half way through the consultation that we managed to get a Government Minister to actually confirm that Location A was still an option and in the consultation!

And as for lumping over 13k responses together, that makes a huge difference when the reports to show the public support and opposition for the options is based on percentages of responses and 13k have been lumped together and counted as one organised campaign response.

Our reports are based of facts, we can reference sources to back up our claims, and are always happy to discuss with HE or anyone else who’s interested.

Plus as we all know it’s not just our group who have experience inadequacies and Highways England’s cover up culture…. read more

Inadequacies of Consultation was part of the reason why the Planning Inspectorate were due to refuse the application in 2020, which is why HE withdrew the application.

At first HE declared they would resubmit the application in early 2021. They also declared they would resubmit within 90-120 days of the application being withdrawn.  The second attempt to resubmit the LTC DCO application was made just under 2 years later, on 31st October 2022.

 

Related

Impacted local authorities Adequacy of Consultation representations 2020 – click here