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Advice to Scott Wilson

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Enquiry

From
Scott Wilson
Date advice given
9 May 2011
Enquiry type
Phone

Anne Cooper called on 09 May 2011 to ask the following questions, some in relation to the Rookery South Energy from Waste facility application:

  1. Does a request for authorisation concerning information about land and right of entry always need to be made?

  2. In terms of handling an application approximately how many relevant days are needed for examining the application? I appreciate this will depend on the complexity of the application but any information from the Rookery application would be useful.

  3. It would also be useful to know how may days have been allocated for the Rookery Hearings process - which I presume is charged for at the same daily rate as it is part of the examination process.

Advice given

In response, the following was supplied to Ms Cooper:

  1. Does a request for authorisation concerning information about land and right of entry always need to be made?

A - Obtaining information about interests in land under Section 52 of the Planning Act 2008 ("the Act") is available to applicants who are proposing a project of real substance. Such a request is available as a last resort to aid a promoter in identifying relevant persons with whom have interests in the proposed land. There is no statutory obligation by the applicant to make such a request to the IPC if they are satisfied they have both identified and exhausted all relevant persons relevant to Section 52 (3) of the Act. The following link will direct you to the relevant advice note on this matter: http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Advice-note-4-s52.pdf Section 53 of the Act: 'Rights of entry' again requires an applicant to propose a project of real substance and one that genuinely requires entry to the proposed development area.

As above with Section 52, such a request is to be made as a last resort with the applicant clearly demonstrating attempts to negotiate entry onto land before making such a request to the IPC. Again, such a request is not a statutory obligation to be fulfilled by the applicant. The following link will direct you to the relevant advice note on this matter: http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Advice-note-5-s53.pdf

  1. In terms of handling an application approximately how many relevant days are needed for examining the application? I appreciate this will depend on the complexity of the application but any information from the Rookery application would be useful.

It is after the Preliminary Meeting, which commences the 6-month Examination stage, that the Examining Authority ("ExA") - either a single commissioner or panel of commissioners (dependent on size, complexity and public interest anticipated) - will issue and circulate to all Interested Parties their procedural decision which sets out the timetable for the Examination stage. It is within this timetable that the estimated length of the application's examination is announced. I have included a link to the ExA's notice of procedural decision for the Rookery South Energy from Waste facility: http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/ipc/uploads/projects/EN010011/2.%20Post-Submission/Procedural%20Decisions/Notice%20of%20Procedural%20Decision.pdf

  1. It would also be useful to know how may days have been allocated for the Rookery Hearings process - which I presume is charged for at the same daily rate as it is part of the examination process.

The total number of days allocated for the Rookery South hearing process is provisionally 20 days. Further exact dates of either issue specific, open-floor and compulsory acquisition hearings will be detailed in Section 91, 92 and 93 notices which will be published as prescribed. In total 124 working days (excluding Bank Holidays and weekends) have been allocated for the Examination of the application. The same fee structure applies throughout the entire Examination stage and the term 'Relevant Day' is to be treated consistently throughout. As you mentioned, you have had reference to The Infrastructure Planning (Fees) Regulations 2010 which will detail and provide further information. I promote reference to CLG guidance notes available on our website which will provide further assistance to the matters raised: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/infrastructurefeesguidance.pdf - fees guidance; and http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/guidanceexaminationprocedure.pdf - examination guidance.