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Meeting with East Staffordshire BC

Enquiry

• Meeting with: East Staffordshire BC
• Date of meeting: 13 September 2011
• Enquiry type: Meeting

At a meeting with the relevant local authorities and RWEnpower for this project on 23 June 2011, RWEnpower asked to which degree an application could be changed following submission

Advice given

The Infrastructure Planning (Compulsory Acquisition) Regulations 2010 regulate the procedure to be followed in circumstances where an application is amended to include additional land for compulsory acquisition. The Infrastructure Planning (Examination Procedure) Rules 2010 do not provide a procedure for the examination of any other material changes to the application. In respect of such material changes which may be proposed to the draft DCO submitted with the application, the Commission will act in accordance with principles established in case law concerning proposed changes to planning applications. Development may not be permitted which is in substance not that for which permission has been applied. A decision whether or not an amendment is substantial must not be perverse under the Wednesbury principle. It is fundamental to the exercise of a decision-maker?s discretion whether those affected by a proposed change would have been deprived of an opportunity to be consulted about the change. This means the Examining Authority would need to come to a view on the materiality of the proposed change taking into account whether full consultation (rather than consultation within the examination process) would be required. Furthermore, the proposed change would need to have been considered in the Environmental Statement, and therefore it is possible that further information would need to be sought under Regulation 17 of the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2009. The decision whether a change could be accepted would need to be made on the facts in each individual case.

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