Colin Turnbull

Colin is a chartered town planner with 19 years’ experience in the private sector. He leads collaborative teams and works closely with legal professionals to achieve robustness, exceed project requirements and timescales, and secure consents that support investment decisions. Colin is also a member of the National Infrastructure Planning Association.

He has worked on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), which require a DCO under the Planning Act 2008, continuously since 2010. Roles have included options appraisal, application preparation, peer review and examination management on numerous projects, along with leading the consenting of three DCO projects end to end, including for SSE Thermal (Keadby 3 – the first carbon capture power station DCO) and EP UK Investments (South Humber Bank Energy Centre). He is currently leading a solar DCO application along with a pioneering sustainable aviation fuel manufacturing plant DCO application.

Colin is particularly experienced in obtaining planning permissions for Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) projects, with over 2GW consented to date, half of which obtained capacity market contracts, and a further 3GW in preparation. He leads larger and portfolio applications for synchronous compensators, new and retrofit industrial and power carbon capture, energy from waste plants, reserve power plants and CHP, pipeline and cable infrastructure, and minerals and waste projects. He also leads section 36 variation applications and planning due diligence activities.

In the transport sector, he advises an owner of airport logistics facilities and has advised strategic highways authorities on upgrades. He acted as consents advisor to Crossrail 2 establishing the hybrid bill consent strategy and worked on the Airports National Policy Statement. He has a background in environmental impact assessment, regeneration, housing and commercial development.