Formal complaint to the consultation process for NGET Sea Link

Subject: Formal complaint to the consultation process for NGET Sea Link

Dear complaints department

Saxmundham Against Needless Destruction (SAND) is a community group (with over 200 members) established in NOV 2023, focusing on providing information and raising awareness of the devastating impacts caused by the energy infrastructure projects to the affected communities in Saxmundham, Sternfield and Benhall, Kelsale cum Carlton. The group also promotes offshore solutions and landfall at existing brownfield sites close to demand. SAND is affiliated with Suffolk Energy Action Solutions (SEAS). 

We would like to raise a formal complaint regarding the consultation process for Sea Link.

Under consultation law, a consultation may only be considered legitimate if the four rules of the Gunning Principles are met, and NGET’s consultations for Sea Link have not demonstrated this.

We would therefore like to lodge a formal complaint that NGET have not followed the Gunning Principle for the consultations, based on the following:

1.    As requested by your numerous consultees and stakeholders, you have not provided any thorough evidence of the offshore grid solution being properly assessed.

2.    You have not provided adequate timing to your consultees for their considerations, by scheduling the latest July 2024 consultation during the summer holiday time, when people will be away on vacation and only providing 4 weeks. Your statutory consultation in Oct 2023, was timed in the run up to the Christmas period when communities were busy and could not focus on digesting all the information. Your public information exhibition in Saxmundham was on the 24 Nov 2023, which then only provided 3 weeks for the communities to submit their responses before the deadline.

3.    The insufficient timing for consideration for the July 2024 consultation is exacerbated by NGV / Ofgem Nautilus Project Consultation which is a mere 4 days after the Sea Link deadline.