Advice to Bournemouth Borough Council
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- From
- Bournemouth Borough Council
- Date advice given
- 5 October 2011
- Enquiry type
- Phone
Role of the local authority in discussing a draft Statement of Community Consultation. Seeking clarity in respect of the integration of IPC with the Planning Inspectorate. Seeking clarity about the relevant Secretary of State for the Navitus Bay proposal.
Advice given
Should the Localism Bill be enacted as it is currently drafted, the IPC would be abolished in April 2012. Ministers have made very clear statements that the expertise and processes held within the current regime would be transferred into a Directorate within the Planning Inspectorate. The IPC has made a commitment to those currently engaged with the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime that the transition will be seamless. In terms of reaching decisions on NSIP applications, the National Infrastructure Directorate would make a recommendation to the relevant Secretary of State who would then have 3 months in which to reach a decision. In the case of offshore wind energy generating stations, we currently understand that the relevant Secretary of State would be that for the Department for Energy and Climate Change. Should this position change I will of course inform you.
We discussed the strong emphasis of the NSIP regime created by the Planning Act 2008 on early consultation with many stakeholders - in essence the consultation is frontloaded. Once an application has been formally submitted to the IPC, there are very limited opportunities for the scheme to be amended. Providing comments to the developers in the pre-application stage of the process is therefore a critical way to ensure that your comments are taken on board. Indeed, the Planning Act 2008 Section 49 requires developers to have regard to consultation responses made under the statutory parts of the pre-application process.
There are several key roles for local authorities in the pre-application stage including:
Firstly to provide comments to the developer on their draft Statement of Community Consultation - this is effectively providing comments on the quality of the consultation strategy proposed and ultimately commenting on the adequacy of the consultation undertaken against that strategy. From reviewing the email thread below, it would appear that the meeting with Eneco regarding the draft Statement of Community Consultation relates specifically to this point. As the IPC cannot enter into discussions about the merits of a scheme, it is not usual for us to have involvement in these discussions between developers and local authorities.
Secondly to consider the preparation of a Local Impact Report - this is effectively outlining the likely impact of the proposed development on an authority's area (or any part of that area). I understand that as part of a wider meeting currently being scheduled between local authority officers and the IPC, a representative of Bournemouth Borough Council will be present. Matters relating to the preparation and timing of a Local Impact Report would be covered in such a meeting.
However, should you and/or your fellow Councillors wish to discuss the IPC role and process in more detail, we would be more than happy to arrange to meet with you. As noted the IPC cannot enter into discussions about the merits of any scheme, however we could discuss the various stages of the process, the likely timescales and answer any procedural queries questions that you may have.