Consultation and development consent

Overview

• Section 1: Foreword
• Section 2: What is the Lower Thames Crossing?
• Section 3: The story so far
• Section 4: Why the Lower Thames Crossing is so important
• Section 5: The route - Design changes
• Section 5: The route - South of the river in Kent
• Section 5: The route - The crossing
• Section 5: The route - North of the river in Thurrock and Essex
• Section 6: Local communities, landscapes and the environment
• Section 7: Building the crossing
• Section 8: Using the Lower Thames Crossing
• Section 9: Consultation and development consent
• Section 10: How to have your say
• Section 11: Events and further information

The process

The Lower Thames Crossing proposal is classified as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. This means that the Planning Inspectorate, on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport, will consider our application to build it.

The Planning Inspectorate will make a recommendation to the Secretary of State. If our application is approved, we will be awarded a Development Consent Order (DCO). This gives us permission to build.

We are required to hold this statutory consultation before submitting our application. This offers the public an opportunity to learn about our project and provide feedback, which we will use to develop our proposals ahead of submitting our DCO application.

We want our consultation to be useful and accessible to everyone who lives and works in the area. To achieve this, we have worked closely with local authorities to produce a Statement of Community Consultation (SoCC).

This sets out all the activities we have planned for the consultation, including holding a series of events and publishing a collection of documents.

Find out more

For more information, see our Statement of Community Consultation

Our public information events will allow you to ask the team questions

Some of the ways we have publicised the consultation include:

• sending letters and leaflets to addresses close to the proposed route
• emailing people on our database who have asked to be kept up-to-date
• issuing the required statutory notices (Section 48 Notices) to all people and organisations who are ‘prescribed consultees'
• placing adverts in several local and national newspapers
• using social media to raise awareness

We will produce a consultation report that explains if, and how, we have changed the proposals in response to feedback provided from the consultation. It will form part of our application for development consent.

If we are awarded a DCO, it is unlikely that our design will change significantly during construction. Therefore, it is important that everyone gives us their views at this stage.

Continue to the next section: Section 10: How to have your say

Read more

• Section 1: Foreword
• Section 2: What is the Lower Thames Crossing?
• Section 3: The story so far
• Section 4: Why the Lower Thames Crossing is so important
• Section 5: The route - Design changes
• Section 5: The route - South of the river in Kent
• Section 5: The route - The crossing
• Section 5: The route - North of the river in Thurrock and Essex
• Section 6: Local communities, landscapes and the environment
• Section 7: Building the crossing
• Section 8: Using the Lower Thames Crossing
• Section 9: Consultation and development consent
• Section 10: How to have your say
• Section 11: Events and further information