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I came across the Northern Powergrid consultation in my role as chair of the
Regional Chief Executives Group for the councils in Yorkshire
and they asked if I'd put it on the agenda and I agreed a bit reluctantly
because let's be honest, it didn't sound very exciting
but when the team came across it was a really engaging twenty minute discussion; they
were very
on the ball about our issues but they were also very open to the ideas that the chief
executives had as to how to improve things in the future.
So I went from a bit of a cynic very quickly to a real enthusiast about the content of the
consultation but also the style in which it was conducted.
Well the consultation with Northern Powergrid has been excellent.
We've been impressed by the professionalism of the approach,
we've had
obviously written process but also face to face meetings with Tom Fielden and
the other Chief Executives across Yorkshire.
We run a lot of consultations ourselves so we can compare and contrast
and we think you've done really well. I would say that when it comes to voluntary and
community organisations often they're quite small, they rely on volunteers
and might have
quite a small capacity and sometimes implementing change in setting up new
projects can take a while, so I think it's great that Northern Powergrid has
opened the door to talking to these new audiences, but it's pretty important
to keep those channels of communication open and to keep building on those
relationships. Northern Powergrid is really connecting the region, thinking
about its communities, thinking about
how it impacts on different stakeholders across Yorkshire and the Humber and the
Northeast. This is really important in moving forward to be a coherent region.
Always found Northern Powergrid
technically very sound and recently being open to some design innovation which is
very very welcome. I want to see that rolled out more widely. It's vital that Newcastle City
Council have been given this opportunity by Northern Powergrid to comment on their
forthcoming business plan. I think its vital that we have strategic relationship with
Northern Powergrid
because it fits in perfectly with the plans we have as it is a City
Council
to look at energy projects that we are planning in the city over the next
10, 20, 30, 40 years.