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Advice to James Baldry

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Enquiry

From
James Baldry
Date advice given
21 April 2017
Enquiry type
Email

I fully appreciate that, under under s53 of the Planning Act 2008 (as amended) (the PA2008), the Planning Inspectorate will be assessing any application against whether "... (a) the proposed applicant is considering a distinct project of real substance genuinely requiring entry onto the land." That I am not questioning.

Surely the Planning Inspectorate must also be considering the suitability and the credibility of the applicant, as well as whether it can meet the 'project of real substance' test? I would suggest that the Planning Inspectorate should be carefully assessing the suitability and credibility of any applicant, both for an S53 access application and, in this case, any possible later application for a Development Consent Order.

Given the evidence in my email of 13th April, I am suggesting that the Planning Inspectorate must scrutinize and carefully question the suitability and credibility of RiverOak Strategic Partners should you receive from it any applications for S53 access or for a Development Consent Order.

Advice given

All applications for authorisation to enter land under s53 of the Planning Act 2008 (the PA2008) will be considered and decided against the statutory tests.

Any subsequent application for a Development Consent Order will be considered for acceptance against the statutory tests in s55 of the PA2008. The Infrastructure Planning (Applications: Prescribed Forms and Procedure) Regulation 2009 require applicants to submit a Funding Statement, if the proposed Development Consent Order would authorise the Compulsory Acquisition of land, indicating how the Compulsory Acquisition is proposed to be funded. Concurrently, the Department for Communities and Local Governments’ ‘Planning Act 2008: Guidance related to procedures for the compulsory acquisition of land’ states that the Funding Statement should “demonstrate that adequate funding is likely to be available to enable the Compulsory Acquisition within the statutory period following the order being made, and that the resource implications of a possible acquisition resulting from a blight notice have been taken account of.”

If an application for a Development Consent Order is accepted for examination matters of funding may be examined by the appointed Examining Authority.