The pre-application development process began in earnest in Autumn 2020 after the owners’ joint venture agreement was signed. This initial work includes early surveys, engagement with relevant statutory consultees, data gathering, and assessing key onshore and offshore constraints.
North Falls is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project and as such, the team will act in accordance with the Planning Act 2008 duty to consult principle, engaging with project stakeholders, being any person, group or organisation with an interest in the project. Local stakeholder and community consultation will be undertaken throughout the pre-application phase.
Pre-application consultation is the main opportunity for stakeholders to review the plans, provide comments, submit feedback and have an influence on elements of the process and shape of the development. The objective is to ensure that stakeholders who are most affected by the proposals are engaged in the development of the wind farm from the start to finish, and have the opportunity to comment on the proposals at key decision making points.
Local residents and the community in the vicinity of the proposed onshore infrastructure will be a priority.
The development of North Falls will be an iterative process and we will welcome views at any time, however there will be specific consultation periods where we will be asking for comments related to defined elements of our proposals.
To date we have held three community consultation phases and even though they are complete you can still read the consultation materials and details of the information that was consulted on:
The current timetable for our consultation phases is as follows: |
|
Ongoing |
Informal engagement |
25 October to 10 December 2021 |
Informal Introductory Consultation |
Spring 2022 |
Statement of Community Consultation |
17 October to 9 December 2022 |
Pre-application Consultation 1 |
16 May to 14 July 2023 |
Pre-application Consultation 2 |
Late 2023 |
Final Pre-application Consultation |
Both our 2022 and 2023 consultations included face-to-face events at five locations near our proposed onshore project area as well as two webinars each. The most recent webinar recordings from the project’s statutory consultation are still available to view on the consultation portal here.
There are no events planned at this time but please check back for updates.
If you would like to be informed of our future events and consultation activities, please register your details and preferred method of contact.
North Falls is a nationally significant infrastructure project which means that the planning application, known as a development consent order application, will be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate, to review and decide whether or not to accept it for examination. There is a page on the Planning Inspectorate website dedicated to North Falls and our process, however you can also visit the site to find out more about how the application process works.