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Due diligence is vital on Aquind interconnector scheme

In his Opinion piece “Long waits for interconnector DCOs means missed financial and environmental opportunities” (NCE online 9 October), Kirill Glukhovskoy berates “interminable development delays”. It’s more complicated than that.

Glukhovskoy’s company, Aquind, awaits planning decisions from the British and French governments to lay and commercially operate a cross-Channel HVDC interconnector and fibre optics communications system. It will reach landfall at Portsmouth and follow mainly urban, arterial and residential roads for 26km to the National Grid substation at Lovedean.

In France the proposed route comes ashore near Dieppe and runs 32km south to a substation in the French power distribution network.

Portsmouth is the most densely populated city in the UK. The adverse impact that the proposed system will have is a matter of grave concern and opposition remains unequivocal. All local councillors and all three MPs across the Conservative and Labour parties are opposed.

The people of Portsmouth will continue to fight to get their collective voice heard. They demand to see that due diligence is conducted thoughtfully and thoroughly.

This takes time and rightly so. I suggest the cavalier autocratic approach to strategic decision making to assuage Aquind’s offshore private investors would be imprudent.

Stephen Dawson (M) sjhdawson@gmail.com

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