Today's entry reports on the ability to include alternatives
in an application for a Development Consent Order.
As one of its final acts before it was abolished on 31 March,
the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) confirmed in advice
given to National Grid that it would accept applications that
contained alternatives in certain circumstances. The letter from
National Grid to the IPC and the reply can be found on the advice
log here.
It is not unusual for an infrastructure project to have
alternative ways of being designed. The promoter of the project may
be neutral as to which of the alternatives to adopt, or it may
prefer one but still accept another if there is a consensus that it
is better. Objectors may be divided on the issue, and so it is not
always clear to the promoter which is 'better'. The worst
outcome for a promoter would be for it to select one alternative
only in its application, only to find that the decision-maker would
have preferred the other
