Tideway’ (Thames Tideway Tunnel project) Planning Consents Manager and the Stakeholder & Consents Manager and Advisor (July 2010 – April 2018)A new 20-mile long storage and transfer tunnel for wastewater (Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP)) that gained development consent in September 2014 after a four year consultation, Development Consent application and finally Examination process.
The project has won a number of prestigious awards including: ‘RTPI Silver Jubilee Cup Winner in 2015’.
Chris, as Planning Manager, led a team of town planners responsible for the relationship with the local authorities in the western section of the route (five local authorities and ten key sites), including the Leaders, Members and other pan-London stakeholders. The process involved five stages of consultation from the early design phase through to the submission of the application for development consent, with integration on site selection, engineering and architectural design, environmental impact, property issues and impact mitigation throughout. He was responsible for negotiating 5no Statements of Common Ground, Section 106 Agreements (5no) and several Property and Asset Protection Agreements with western local authorities and other stakeholders; and he prepared, with his team, the documentation used during each stage of consultation and for the submission of the application for development consent and reviewing other DCO documents. He was responsible for co-representing the project’s technical and coordinating interface with Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea regeneration area.
Subsequently, in the delivery set up stage he has delivered early works consents, ongoing key stakeholder involvement, Main Contract development, development of further stakeholder Agreements and continued and detailed involvement in Nine Elms Regeneration area. His key areas of experience then were:
- Delivery of Schedule 3 Requirement planning consents and preparing Consents Registers with Environment and Transport teams
- Involvement in stakeholder management and liaison and issue resolution, collaboratively with management and other technical teams
- Assist preparing and implementing Stakeholder Agreements/Asset Protection Agreements, with the Property and Third Party Infrastructure teams
- Assisting the Delivery and Engineering teams resolve issues
- Liaison with Environment teams on key issues and contractor documentation
- Liaison with the Communications team on key meetings, public/stakeholder enquiries, letters and document reviews and issue resolution
- Liaison/issue resolution with management, Central Delivery team, Communications, Property and Client on Nine Elms issues
Since November 2014, he was appointed as Stakeholder & Consents Manager (West) commencing in January 2015 responsible for managing 12 staff (covering the fields of planning, environment, third party infrastructure, communications and property/compensation) and was part of the Tideway West management team of seven senior staff. This management team is responsible for assurance of the West contract of £450m, in particular assisting the West Joint Venture Contractor teams. He undertook this full time role for two years in the crucial period of main works contractor start up and the initial period of key consents, implementing the DCO that he had helped secure. This role involved:
- Review of draft consent submissions in planning and environment
- Liaison with 5no local authorities and other pan-London stakeholders in technical and communications matters
- Coordination, liaison with and assurance of main works Joint Venture contractor’s consents’ teams work, submissions and approach (including planning, environment, transport, communications/consultation, design and third party infrastructure)
- Liaison with resident/community/amenity groups
- Implementation of property agreements and liaison with stakeholders
- Decision making within management team for consents/stakeholder matters
Then, in January 2017 he transferred that role and undertook the role of Stakeholder & Consents Advisor for 4 days a week. This role is responsible largely for troubleshooting, strategic local authority liaison, representing Tideway at all community events, advice on compensation and communications, dealing with key issues and key stakeholders and overall team advice.
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