Advice to 25 Parish Councils
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- From
- 25 Parish Councils
- Date advice given
- 17 May 2011
- Enquiry type
Please can you clarify whether or not the IPC have to be notified by the 6th of June of an intention to speak at the Rookery South Open Floor Hearings, or has it now been decided that this is not necessary?
Whilst we would welcome a more flexible approach, and a deadline of the 6th of June seems very early, we really need to know so that we can put out a clear and consistent message. If there is a June 6th deadline, we need to catch the May editions of the various parish newsletters, in order to publicise this date.
Advice given
The purpose of the 6th June date referred to in Paul Hudson's letter of 11 April 2011 was to remind interested parties of the deadline to confirm that they wish to be heard at an open floor hearing (this deadline had previously been made in the letter of 21st January which set out the time table for the examination). This is a statutory requirement in s93 of the Planning Act 2008 which requires that the Examining authority must 'fix a deadline by which an interested party must notify the Commission of the party's wish to be heard at an open floor hearing'. If the Commission receives such notification from at least one interested party before the deadline (which we have got in this case), then an open floor hearing must be held. Of course, I think it was very apparent that an open floor hearing would take place given the level of public interest but it is important that we follow the statutory procedures.
As explained in Paul Hudson's recent later of 13th May, details of the procedure interested parties should now follow if they wish to speak and put their case at the open floor hearing sessions will be provided at least 4 weeks in advance of these hearings.
So there is no for people to notify us of their wish to attend by the 6th June as the purpose of this deadline has already been served (ie notification that at least one person wishes to be heard at a hearing). In practice, should anyone inform us in the coming days and weeks of their wish to speak, these will be taken into account in the organisation of the meetings - but, to be clear, there is no need for them to do so by 6th June.