Planning Update

3rd February 2021

SIMEC ATLANTIS ENERGY LIMITED
(“SAE”, the “Company” or the “Group”)

Planning update  

SAE welcomed the report by Newport City Council (“NCC”) planning officers regarding the Group’s planning application for the February Planning Committee meeting and their recommendation that planning permission be granted with conditions.  The “Proposed Development” in this planning application comprises fuel storage,  material handling and other ancillary infrastructure to be constructed external to the existing power station building.

We note however that a third party has requested the planning application be “called in” for determination by Welsh Government rather than the local planning authority, NCC.

Following on from this third-party request, the Welsh Government has followed due process and issued a holding direction while it considers if this call-in is justified. Welsh Government will aim to decide whether to reject or uphold the call-in request within 21 days of receipt of the planning officers’ report. The Welsh Government generally only call in an application if the Proposed Development appears to raise planning issues of more than local importance.

The question of call-in is solely about who should be the decision maker on an application for planning permission – the Welsh Government or the local planning authority – and not whether planning permission should be granted or not.

Welsh Government will review the planning issues raised by the application and assess how they have been addressed by the local planning authority. In this way they can reach a conclusion on whether the application raises planning issues that they feel are more appropriately dealt with by the local authority. There are two possible outcomes:

The call-in request is rejected – the planning application would then revert to back to the local planning authority to determine. In this scenario SAE will work with the Planning Officer to confirm that our planning application can be presented to the Planning Committee at the earliest opportunity.

The call-in request is accepted – the planning application would be passed to the Welsh Government to take the decision.

SAE will provide an update to the market once it has been informed of the result of the call-in decision.

 

For more information please contact:

SIMEC Atlantis Energy Limited +44 (0) 7739 832 446
Sean Parsons, Director of External Affairs  
Investec Bank PLC – NOMAD and Joint Broker +44 (0) 20 7597 5970
Jeremy Ellis

Sara Hale

Ben Griffiths

 
 Arden Partners PLC – Joint Broker  +44 (0) 20 7614 5900
Ruari McGirr

Richard Johnson

Simon Johnson

 

Notes to Editors

SIMEC Atlantis Energy

Atlantis is a global developer, owner and operator of sustainable energy projects with a diverse portfolio in various stages of development. This includes a 77 per cent. stake in the world’s largest tidal stream power project, MeyGen, 100 per cent. of the 220MW Uskmouth Power Station conversion project and 100 per cent. of Green Highland Renewables, a leading developer of mini-hydro projects.

https://www.saerenewables.com/

More on the MeyGen Project: https://staging.saerenewables.com/projects/meygen/

More on the Uskmouth Project: https://staging.saerenewables.com/project-development-operation/simec-uskmouth-power/

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