Advice to Common Concern
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- From
- Common Concern
- Date advice given
- 7 February 2014
- Enquiry type
During the afternoon session at last weeks Outreach Meeting Mr Simon Cairns, representing Common Concern, questioned the Planning Inspectorate regarding the number of cases to date where local authorities, other than Suffolk CC and Mid Suffolk DC, have resolved to support Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects at the pre-consultation stage.
On this point the Planning Inspectorate (Jeff Penfold) undertook to provide a response to Common Concern regarding the orthodoxy of local authorities resolving, in principle, to support projects in the absence of project design details or EIA evidence at this very early stage of the process.
Advice given
I am writing in regards to the request for advice following the outreach event held on 22 January 2014 relating to the proposed Progress Power Station by Progress Power Ltd. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you on this matter.
The question posed by yourself to the Planning Inspectorate related to the frequency of cases where local authorities involved in a project have voiced an opinion, at the pre-application consultation stage of the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (?NSIP?) process, in regards to their stance on a proposal.
At the pre-application stage, local authorities provide responses directly to applicants and this is not information that is given to the Planning Inspectorate. In addition, we do not hold information on the procedure for each authority to prepare its response, for example whether this is a delegated power or report to the relevant cabinet or committee.
The most comprehensive record of local authority responses can be found in consultation reports submitted with each application. We have published all consultation reports submitted as part of applications made, on our website. These documents summarise the response of local authorities to formal pre-application consultation and may prove a useful starting point to help answer your query. Each project has its own page with all the relevant documents. Our home page also lists the latest schemes in examination.
You can search for projects by stage in the process at the following link:
http://infrastructure.planningportal.gov.uk/projects/
For each project, application documents can be found under the ?documents? tab, and are sorted by stage on the left hand side of the page.
Consultation Reports can be found under ?developer?s application?, and you can search for ?consultation report? in the filter on the right hand side of the page.
I attach an example below which I hope assists:
As a general point, the aim of the Planning Act 2008 is to use the pre-application stage to identify potential issues before an application is made. We encourage all consultees whether statutory or community consultees, to make responses at the pre-application stage based on the information available for applicants to have regard to when forming an application. It is for each consultee including local authorities to consider how they put together their response.
Local authorities in particular have a statutory role throughout the process. Where they are able to identify issues early on and work with applicants at the pre-application stage, it can help identify potential mitigation measures before an application is submitted. Should an application be accepted, formal responses at the pre-application stage can help applicants and local authorities to establish information needed to inform future representations made as part of any examination. Please note that all parties have the opportunity to comment on any representations made during examination, for consideration by the Examining authority and on the application documents.
I hope this helps to answer your question, please feel free to contact us should you have any further questions regarding any aspect of the process.