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Advice to Cornwall Council

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Enquiry

From
Cornwall Council
Date advice given
6 June 2014
Enquiry type
Phone

Cornwall Council referred to commercially sensitive information comprised within the Series 3000 drawings requested by the Examining Authority (ExA) under Rule 17 of Infrastructure Planning (Examination Procedure) Rules 2010 on 23 May 2014.

Advice given

Without fettering the judgement of the ExA, I would anticipate that detailed reasons justifying the omission of the Series 3000 drawings from the examination will be requested. As an organisation we are sympathetic to commercial sensitivities, however in this context there appears to me an inherent risk that in absence of the requested material it may not be possible for Cornwall Council to demonstrate how adequate mitigation will be secured. This issue of course, in light of the high-level nature of the draft Landscape Ecological Management Plan (LEMP) as initially submitted, was the crux of the ExA?s request for further information in the first instance.

In my opinion, there remains for you two options at this stage, and it will be for the Council to take its own legal advice on which might be most appropriate. One option would be for the ?commercially sensitive? information to be submitted to the Inspectorate and redacted ahead of publication. This however may be difficult given the nature of some of the information comprised within drawings. The other option would be to submit ?non-commercially sensitive? versioning of the drawings which you feel would demonstrate that the necessary mitigation is secured.

To summarise, I would emphasise that the ExA will need to be assured that appropriate mitigation will be secured for the scheme. It is implied in his request for further information in relation to the draft LEMP that the Series 3000 drawings will be required to inform this satisfaction. It is clear that Cornwall Council is keen to assist the examination to the extent that it is able, but in consideration of the content of your voice message I would strongly advise that where you feel that withholding any information requested by the ExA is necessary, detailed justification is provided to the examination in writing.