What does it take to consent a 90km power line? Oliver on North Humber to High Marnham

Oliver is a Senior Planner at AtkinsRéalis, based in London. He joined as a graduate four years ago and now leads planning and environmental consents for major infrastructure, mostly in the power and renewables market. He is currently working on National Grid’s North Humber to High Marnham project, a new 90km overhead line in the north of England.

What does your week look like?

“My day is made up of calls with clients, reviewing reports and managing projects to deliver their planning and environmental consents so they can be built. I travel to clients and sites often, with the majority of my work being in the power and renewables market.

The work lets the projects I’m on progress by making sure they’re legislatively compliant and that the project has a net benefit on the community and its environment. For my clients I’ve worked within their teams for long periods, becoming part of their set‑up and sharing their ambitions for delivery at pace.”

Thousands of people responded to consultation. What happened to all those responses?

What have you learned working across all those specialists?

“These decisions have huge impacts, so all project specialists are consulted, from a technical, environmental, legal and landowner perspective.

What I’ve learned through that is the importance of effective assessments and holistic decision‑making. Changes have the potential to cause wider consequences, and avoiding that is a complex balance of impacts and mitigation.”

What’s the part people outside the team never see?

“As on all major projects, the scale of the team involved, the hours put in and the attention to detail still surprises me. For a project like this, where it’s 90km long with hundreds of towers located in hundreds of land parcels, it’s amazing to know that the positioning, size, access to and design of every single component has been discussed and assessed for hours.

That’s all in an effort to deliver a project that balances national need with local impact.”

“Hundreds of towers located in hundreds of land parcels.”

You joined as a graduate. How has it gone since?

“I started at AtkinsRéalis as a Graduate Planner, where I helped coordinate teams and draft documents. In the four years I’ve been here I’ve developed my experience to lead major projects for nationally significant clients as a Senior Planner.

The autonomy and backing I’ve had from my managers and directors has been the key experience throughout my time. Ambition is encouraged, and it’s a company that supports you to try new things.

If you want to fix some of the biggest challenges the nation has in delivering major infrastructure, and want to be part of a supportive team while doing it, then this is the team for you.”

A project that balances national need with local impact.

If that sounds like your kind of work, we’re recruiting planners across our power, renewables and infrastructure consenting teams. Explore our live roles.