A BID to build a new gas-fired power station in Tilbury has moved a step closer after Thurrock Council said there were more positive aspects to the plan than negatives in a report to the Planning Inspectorate.

At a meeting of the council's planning committee on Thursday, 11 February, members were briefed on the council's proposed response to the government as it considers granting permission for the new venture which will be on part of the former Tilbury coal-fired power station.

Thurrock Power, a subsidiary of energy company Statera Energy, is proposing to the Thurrock Flexible Generation Plant that will comprise a gas-fired electricity generating station and a battery storage facility on land to the north of Tilbury substation off Fort Road, Tilbury.

The power station will run for 35 years before being decommissioned. Statera says it plans to be at the forefront of technological development in the transition to a lower carbon economy.

As a consultee to a project of national significance, rather than the planning authority itself, Thurrock Council was asked to make an appraisal of all aspects of the site as part of a six stage planning process. Pre-application, acceptance and pre-examination stages have been successfully passed and the project now enters the main examination stage at which the views of interested parties, like Thurrock Council, are considered.

A recommendation will then be submitted by the Planning Inspectorate to the secretary of stage and decision will be then has a further three months to make the decision on whether to grant or refuse development consent.

Once a decision has been issued by the relevant Secretary of State, there is a six week period in which the decision may be challenged in the High Court.

The road for the plan still has some objections to smooth over. The former operator of Tilbury power station, RWE – for example – says it has strong objections. To build the new station requires construction of a causeway on the River Thames, heavy haul roads, further access to the adopted highway, environmental mitigation and grid connections, according to documents submitted to the inspectorate by RWE which is thee owner of part of required land.

While in negotiations with Statera and 'generally supportive' of the project, RWE said last September it 'strongly objects to the extensive access rights that the applicant seeks to impose on RWE's landholding through compulsory acquisition powers, which could prevent the future development of the site'.

RWE says it requires this land for its own ecological mitigation purposes and it objects to the proposals for a causeway adjacent to the site. RWE states it will "strongly resist the compulsory acquisition of land and rights over land which RWE owns and requires for development purposes".

RWE floated plans to build a 100MW battery at Tilbury two years ago, but later shelved them.

However, there is a more supportive view from Thurrock Council which says it recognises the new power station would result in a 'negative impact' as harm through inappropriate development and the impact upon the openness of the green belt but it considers those negatives to be outweighed by the factors put forward as 'very special circumstances by the applicant including the critical need for electricity demand, security and network resilience along with the specific locational factors for choosing this site with its connections to the National Grid in the form of the Tilbury Substation and associated pylons, and the nearby connection to the national transmission gas system.

The full Thurrock response is in two documents approved by Thurrock planning councillors: Impact report and Written representation which were both approved by the planning committee.