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Advice to Antony Aldridge

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Enquiry

From
Antony Aldridge
Date advice given
16 December 2011
Enquiry type
Email

Email enquiry from the promoter, seeking advice on consultation and whether their approach is reasonable if the scheme layout is amended.

Advice given

The following advice was given:

Under section 55(3)(e) of the Planning Act 2008, the Commission may only accept an application if the applicant has complied with Chapter 2 of Part 5 of the Act (sections 41 to 50).

Under section 49(2) of the the Act, an applicant must, when deciding whether to make an application in the same terms as the proposed application, have regard to any relevant responses received as result of consultation and publicity under sections 42, 47 and 48.

Under section 50(3) of the Act, the applicant is required to have regard to any guidance about the pre-application procedure issued by the Secretary of State. Paragraph 78 of CLG?s "Guidance on Pre-Application Consultation" (September 2009) states:

?Where a proposed application changes to such a degree that the legitimacy of the consultation may be in question, promoters should consult the community again on the new options. In such circumstances promoters should supply consultees with sufficient information to enable them to fully understand the nature of the change (but not necessarily the full suite of consultation documents) and allow at least 28 days for consultees to respond.?

Consultation or publicity undertaken outside sections 42, 47 or 48 cannot be relied on to demonstrate compliance with those sections. You may wish to consider whether the changes to the proposal require anything to be done to comply with sections 42, 47 or 48. For example, the new plan you provided indicates that there is a new road or accessway to be built to the west of the relocated new northern roundabout. You may wish to consider whether, as a result of this new road or accessway, or as a result of any other changes to the scheme, there are now any additional s42 parties.

In addition to ensuring compliance with the statutory requirements and guidance for the purpose of acceptance, you may wish to consider other potential benefits that may flow from undertaking additional consultation or publicity now, such as avoiding delays later in the process.

You will need to detail all of the consultation and publicity you have undertaken in your s37(3)(c) consultation report. IPC Guidance Note 1 states that the consultation report should draw together:

  • An account of the statutory consultation, publicity, deadlines set and community consultation activities undertaken by the applicant at the pre-application stage under s42, s47 and s48.

  • A summary of the relevant responses to the separate strands of consultation

  • The account taken of responses in developing the application from proposed to final form, as required by s49(2).

  • Any steps taken by the applicant to comply with relevant consultation provisions in the EIA Regulations.