Advice to Anonymous
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- From
- Anonymous
- Date advice given
- 11 July 2017
- Enquiry type
RSP who wish to reopen Manston airport have published a glossy 48 page brochure laying out all their plans for the future development of the site. I believe that RSP have deliberately ignored Ramsgate, the town most affected by their plans. Ramsgate is mentioned only 5 times in the RSP brochure without once addressing the concerns of the population most affected by the flight path.
It appears that RSP have decided that as they cannot explain away the problems that will befall Ramsgate once their airport is running, it is simpler to ignore the people of Ramsgate.
We have not been informed by door to door leafleting, we have not been consulted by holding a public meeting, as held by RSP in Westgate on Sea (a suburb of Margate, not under any flight path). I have no doubt that for these reasons the RSP consultation is greatly flawed and should be rejected as unprofessional.
Advice given
Please provide your comments to the Applicant and to your local authority. Local authorities have a special role in the Planning Act 2008 (PA2008) process, which I explain in the content of this letter.
The PA2008 places a number of duties on Applicants in respect of Pre-application consultation and all applications for development consent must be accompanied by a ‘Consultation Report’. The Consultation Report is prepared under section 37 of the PA2008 and must give details of:
a) what has been done in compliance with sections 42, 47 and 48 of the PA2008 in relation to an application; b) any relevant responses; and c) the account taken of any relevant responses.
In the Acceptance period (ie the 28 days following the formal submission of an application) the Planning Inspectorate will scrutinise all of the application documents, including the evidence provided in the Consultation Report, applying the statutory tests set out in s55 of the PA2008. By the end of the Acceptance period the Planning Inspectorate (on behalf of the Secretary of State) must decide, in accordance with the tests in s55 of the PA2008, whether or not an application is of a satisfactory standard to be examined.
In reaching the above decision, s55(4) makes explicit that the Planning Inspectorate must have regard to the Consultation Report and any Adequacy of Consultation Representations made by local authority consultees. Adequacy of Consultation Representations are defined by s55(5) of the PA2008 as representations about whether the applicant complied with its duties under sections 42, 47 and 48. They are requested from all relevant local authorities on receipt of an application for development consent.
To that end, in providing your comments to your local authority they may be considered in the Council’s preparation of its Adequacy of Consultation Representation; if an application is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate.