Advice to Barton-under-needwood PC
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- From
- Barton-under-needwood PC
- Date advice given
- 25 August 2010
- Enquiry type
- Phone
Mr Sharkey requested information on pre-application Commisioners and their role within the pre-application stage. Further information was sought on the scoping opinion adoption and publication dates with confirmation on whether East Staffordshire Borough Council had responded to any previous consultations under Section 43 of the Planning Act ("the Act") or Regulation 8 (6) of the EIA regulations 2009.
Advice given
The appointment of a pre-application Commissioner(s) is not a statutory requirement and are not the same Commissioner(s) appointed to carry out the examination of the development consent order application. It is, however, the intention to provide an appropriate use of Commissioners? experience and judgement to both the Case Management and the legal teams, offering advice where appropriate to ensure that issues of significance receive proper consideration. The role for the pre-application Commissioner is to support the work of the case management teams on any pre-application public meetings and assist the Environmental Impact Assessment team in preparing screening and scoping opinions, helping to identify issues the Commission believes are relevant to the ES and that the opinion gives proper guidance to the prospective applicant about the environmental issues that are likely to prove significant in the examination of any application submitted. This approach to pre-application forms part of the overall quality assurance procedures of the IPC and helps Commissioners develop their knowledge and understanding of the issues arising in case-work and of IPC procedures.
I can confirm the pre-application commissioner for the Willington Gas Pipeline project (project #EN060001) is Glyn Roberts and Case Leader for this project - Mark Wilson.
The local authority which you have identified in this instance, East Staffordshire Borough Council, were consulted upon as a Relevant Waste Regulation Authority as prescribed under Schedule 1 of Statutory Instrument #2264 and under Section 43 of the Planning Act 2008 ("the Act") as a relevant "B" Local Authority. As reflected in the IPC's adopted scoping opinion, comments were not received back from East Staffordshire Borough Council in regard to the request for comments on environmental issues.
If you feel that East Staffordshire Borough Council did not respond appropriately to the consultation or represent views expressed to them in regard to the project either by the IPC through environmental scoping or by the promoter themselves, I would suggest direct contact with the authority and the applicant - raising your views.
Alternatively, contact details for the applicant can be sought from:
Should the Commission decide to accept the Willington Gas Pipeline Connection application, the applicant is required to publish and carry out notification of the accepted application inviting representations from the general public, statutory consultees and relevant stakeholders. This is the point at which you should write to us giving notice of your interest in or, objection to, the application. A form will be available on-line for you to complete for this purpose, details of which will be provided in the applicant?s publicity and notification. This will ensure that you will become an 'interested party' and so will be notified of all future stages in the Commissions examination of the application.