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Advice to West Sussex Council

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Enquiry

From
West Sussex Council
Date advice given
16 August 2012
Enquiry type
Phone

In regard to the proposed Rampion Offshore Windfarm application, currently at the 'pre-application' stage, West Sussex Council telephoned the Planning Inspectorate helpdesk for advice about submitting a Local Impact Report.

A summary of our advice by telephone is detailed below.

Advice given

Thank you for your telephone enquiry. I understand you are already familiar with the Planning Inspectorate?s non-statutory Advice Note One: Local Impact Reports. As such, I refer you to the 2008 Planning Act process as summarised in Figure 1, also showing the statutory deadlines to which the Examining Authority must follow; and Figure 2, illustrating how Local Impact Reports (LIRs) fit into the statutory timetable.

As you may already know, the Examining Authority appointed to examine the proposal sets the procedure for examination and the deadline for the submission of LIRs. The Examining Authority will propose a date for the submission of LIRs during the ?pre-examination? stage, in the Rule 6 letter which also invites interested parties to the Preliminary Meeting. The timetable is then confirmed after the Preliminary Meeting and the beginning of examination in the Rule 8 letter, sent to interested parties. The deadline for LIRs is likely to be early during the ?examination? stage, and so local authorities are strongly urged to consider drafting their own evaluation of the local impacts of the proposal at ?pre-application?. Local authorities should then begin to compile the LIR as soon as the application has been accepted formally by the Secretary of State. This approach will enable the LIR to be produced within the deadlines.

Local authorities should use the time during the pre-application consultation process to gather sufficient information from the applicant about the scheme to enable them to commence work on their evaluation. It is also important that local authorities take account of their own committee cycles and whether LIRs require approval by Members in order to meet any deadline set by the Examining Authority.