Case study – stakeholder engagement

Southampton to London Pipeline Project

UK SOUTH

Background

Client: Esso Petroleum Company

Project: Southampton to London
pipeline project.

The Southampton to London

Pipeline Project was launched in
December 2017 to replace 90km of
Esso’s 105km aviation fuel pipeline
that runs from its Fawley Refinery
to its West London Terminal
storage facility.

Under the Planning Act 2008 this

scheme is a Nationally Significant
Infrastructure Project, in which
public consultation plays a key part.
Esso chose Jacobs to deliver an
integrated package of support to take We produced a wide range of materials to help communicate the project
the project forward to planning
consent, including planning and environmental expertise alongside communications and stakeholder
engagement. The Jacobs team were tasked with delivering stakeholder engagement and communications on
the project.
Challenges

Mobilisation
• The project was starting anew, with no public profile. A project narrative and key messages needed
creating.
• Multiple internal stakeholders needed to be integrated and project confidentiality maintained
• Project needed to maintain existing strong relationships with its 500 landowners along the current
pipeline route
The existing pipeline was built over fifty years ago, however there was little public awareness of the need to
replace it. Landowners with the existing pipe on their land knew of it, but not of plans to replace it; and
landowners in areas where there was the potential to install the replacement pipeline would not have known in
advance of the project launch that any replacement pipeline may be routed closer to/or within their land.
Internal stakeholders included Fisher German, Esso’s land agents and the main interface between Esso and
landowners, the Esso Public & Government Affairs team and the Jacobs Stakeholder Engagement &
Communications team.
Diverse stakeholders
• The pipeline route includes rural and urban areas, so there are diverse groups of stakeholders, public
and national parks, small/medium-sized businesses and complex organisations
• The route runs through two county councils and ends within the Greater London Authority
• The route covers nine district councils and extends through eight constituencies
• Communication was required with 45 parish councils, plus residents’ associations in unparished areas
Since the existing pipeline was built in the 1960s the areas it crosses in Hampshire and Surrey have changed
dramatically. The South Downs National Park and many other protected sites have been established alongside

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the existing pipeline. Communities, new homes and businesses have been created and roads such as the M25
have been opened. These geographical changes not only add engineering and design challenges, but also new
sets of stakeholders, some with no prior knowledge of the existing pipeline. A major aim of the project team was
to build successful stakeholder relationships that would allow the team to secure voluntary land agreements and
avoid compulsory purchase orders.

The southern end of the replacement pipeline is mostly rural and runs through approximately 25km of the South
Downs National Park, where priorities focus on environmental impacts. The section of National Park impacted
by the pipeline crosses two district councils - Winchester and East Hampshire. Although sited in the same
location, the park and councils have differing priorities and interests, and a key element of our project is
providing fair and comprehensive engagement to all stakeholder groups, without prioritising one over the other.

As the pipeline extends northwards towards London, increasing urbanisation and population mean installing the
pipeline along residential streets. The pipeline ends in the London Borough of Hounslow, but also falls within
neighbouring Spelthorne Borough Council, located inside the M25 and with limited open land. Local authority
and public concerns in the north of the route focus on the impact of construction on residents and streetworks to
road users, plus the construction impact on open land space.

Understanding the priorities of the local authorities and environmental regulators along the route was
fundamental to the engagement plan. We needed to strike a balance of using consistent project key messaging
along the route while adapting our engagement to address the needs and concerns of our diverse stakeholders.
Solutions

Mobilisation
Esso, Jacobs and Fisher German teams took a one team approach from the very beginning by adopting a
cross-team collaboration. This was fundamental to understanding current landowner and stakeholder
relationships and developing an engagement plan built from that knowledge.
The integrated team created an engagement strategy that was based on a strong project narrative
communicated to stakeholders at every possible step – keeping them informed and encouraging their feedback.
To ensure successful engagement we:
- extended our stakeholder mapping, creating a second tier of analysis to identify key influencers to
support our project and influence others by cascading information;
- communicated with stakeholders from the very beginning of the project;
- used these early conversations to really understand their priorities; and consequently
- developed an engagement delivery plan tailored for those stakeholders.
Tailoring the engagement plan included organising elected member and officer forums, environmental
stakeholder forums and parish council drop-in sessions and following up on these with one-to-one meetings.
Stakeholders, including MPs, were briefed in advance of, or on, key dates such as the launch of the public
consultations and subsequent corridor/route announcements.
Engaging diverse stakeholders
Our engagement was fluid, adapting to what our stakeholders told us. For example, we asked local authorities
who they wanted us to communicate with in their communities and shared our draft engagement plans with
them to seek their input. As a result, we identified residents’ associations at the request of Runnymede Borough
Council, and when Surrey Heath Borough Council asked us to be aware of social media, as they had a well-
used Twitter account, we incorporated local authority social media channels into our engagement plan. This
allowed us to reach those we hadn’t captured through direct mail, consultation events or meetings. We agreed
with local authorities that they would use their social media channels to cascade our pre-written messaging at
key points in the project such as at the launch of each public consultation. This worked very well to push out
coordinated and consistent messaging across Surrey and Hampshire through existing social media
communities.
We have also engaged at a specialist level, building strong relationships with portfolio holders within council
teams, such as planning, highways, and environment teams. By offering expert counterparts from our teams as

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a liaison point, our authorities are talking to the right people with the right knowledge and experience to respond
to any queries or concerns. We keep track of these conversations through our “Track Record” tool, an online
system to log and manage stakeholder contacts and interactions.
Landowners were an essential element to our engagement activities. As the project progressed, we held drop-
ins specifically for landowners and carried out one-to-one meetings where requested.
As well as standard consultation materials we
provided visual tools to help stakeholders and the
public understand our project. We created an
interactive online project map showing the
proposed replacement pipeline route on an easy-
to-navigate interface. We also produced visual
aids, for example a “fly-through” video of our
preferred pipeline route, which talked through the
entire route and key features using an aerial view
to help people to visualise the route in relation to
their local area. Interactive graphics on the
website showed how a rural and urban area may
look before and during construction, with users able Communities liked the interesting and user-friendly materials
to click points on the image to find out more
information.

A phone number and email address were set up early in the project to direct public and stakeholders with
questions and concerns to the project team. This, plus the website, consultation materials and meetings with
stakeholders allowed us to communicate openly with all interested people and groups and manage potential
reputational issues early.

Outcome/Benefits

This internal integrated approach from project mobilisation led to a successful project launch and an enduring
project narrative. Our engagement strategy and delivery plan can be measured through the results of our three
public consultations, which reflect how early widespread engagement and the provision of comprehensive and
useful information at all stages helped to reassure stakeholders, leading to a decrease in concerns and contact
with the project. At each stage, the number of people engaging with the project reduced dramatically. Almost
2,000 people attended the first consultation events, with 1,000 consultation responses received. By the third
consultation, 225 people attended, with 92 consultation responses received.

This aligns with the reduced number of people affected by the project, but also shows that stakeholders became
more informed and less concerned as a result of ongoing engagement. This is supported by the more informed
questions being asked and the detail contained within consultation responses. Consultation responses from
local authorities are succinct and refer to previous meeting notes, demonstrating their issues were already noted
by the project and have been/are being discussed.

Stakeholders feel well-briefed through our engagement activities, and this is evidenced by only one MP having
accepted an offer of a face-to-face meeting. Others decline on the basis they are already aware of the project
and have the information they need.

The website statistics show high levels of website traffic during consultations, but this has not translated into
particularly high numbers of consultation responses. This is evidence that the project is reaching a large
community and providing what they need to understand the project, and therefore they do not feel that they
need to formalise any issues through the consultation process.

The project’s engagement strategy has strengthened helped to strengthen our stakeholder relationships along
the pipeline route. This well executed engagement work leading up to the application for development consent in
2019 will help drive cooperative working relationships during pipeline installation and beyond.