Mersey Tidal Power is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project under the Planning Act and will need a Development Consent Order which will be determined by the Planning Inspectorate on behalf of Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. The application for a DCO is likely to be submitted in 2026 and will contain full details of the proposed scheme and be accompanied by an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and significant supporting documentation as required. As part of this process a Scoping Report has now been published.
The purpose of the Environmental Impact Assessment Scoping Report is to
- Provide early information about the proposals, focusing on the key issues and requesting responses from stakeholders to the Planning Inspectorate as they prepare the Scoping Opinion;
- Outline the scope of the technical topics which are scoped in or out of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) which will support the DCO application, in addition to outlining other associated reports and assessments which are interrelated;
- Provide methods of collating baseline information and basis for technical approaches and methods, building on those already commenced where appropriate
The Scoping Report (in several volumes) is available to download from the Planning Inspectorate website – click here.