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Advice to New Forest District Council

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Enquiry

From
New Forest District Council
Date advice given
15 August 2014
Enquiry type
Email

Request for submission of the LIR on 10 October rather than the deadline of 6 October as stated in the Rule 6 letter, this is due to timings around committee meetings and availability of key members.

Advice given

Thank you for bringing to our attention the committee meetings dates and the impact on submission of your LIR. The ExA is aware of the situation and will address this at the preliminary meeting. Whilst I understand that this is after your planning committee date for September, when you suggest a number of key people are unavailable, this is unfortunate but the Examining Authority has already made a procedural decision that the deadline for receipt of the LIR is to be 6th October. It is felt that any change to that deadline is best addressed at the preliminary meeting as The Infrastructure Planning (Examination Procedure) Rules 2010 require this deadline to be included in the timetable which the Examining Authority has to set either at the preliminary meeting itself or as soon as practicable after the end of the meeting(Rule 8(1)).

LIRs are often required early in the examination period and the deadline given for the submission of the LIR following the preliminary meeting is often short. Therefore, you are strongly encouraged to use this period to evaluate the local impacts of the proposal. Local authorities are encouraged to compile the LIR as soon as the application has been accepted formally by the Secretary of State. This approach should enable the LIR to be produced within the deadlines. In practice, local authorities will know about the application some time before it is submitted, through the pre-application consultation carried out by the applicant.

Whilst we have sympathy with the situation it is important to remember that local authorities should prioritise preparation of their LIR irrespective of whether the local authority considers the development would have a positive or negative impact on their area. The local authority will be able to submit a separate written representation if it wishes to express a particular view on whether the application should be granted

Local authorities should ensure any necessary internal authorisation processes are in place to meet the timetable. It is entirely a matter for local authorities to determine whether or not an LIR requires approval by Members and in what form. Can I reiterate that changes to the deadline for submission of LIRs, although discussed at the Preliminary meeting, are not encouraged. If the date remains as detailed in the draft timetable sent with the rule 6 letter, and you do not submit the LIR by the specified date, the ExA need not have regard to it under s104(2) of the PA2008.