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Advice to Simon Crow

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Enquiry

From
Simon Crow
Date advice given
19 January 2018
Enquiry type
Email

I understand that, according to the DCO process, RSP should have prepared a Consultation Report to PINS outlining how it took into account the feedback responses from its public consultations held in June and July 2017. Am I correct in my understanding that no such report was prepared? I have been told by RSP that, following the current January and February 2018 statutory consultations, it now intends to prepare a Consultation Report describing how it has responded to feedback from both the 2017 and 2018 consultations. Would you not agree that that is less than satisfactory? Surely PINS should have received, and the public would rightly expect, the report from the 2017 consultations before a further consultation would take place?

Advice given

The Applicant will be required to submit a Consultation Report with its application for development consent. The Consultation Report is not an iterative document and applicants are not required to produce a separate Report for each round of consultation that they undertake. The Planning Inspectorate cannot test the adequacy of an applicant’s Pre-application consultation until an application (including the Consultation Report) is formally submitted to it.

Notwithstanding the explicit statutory duties places on applicants in respect of their Pre-application consultation (under the Planning Act 2008), the Planning Inspectorate’s Advice Note 14 summarises the purpose and gives advice about the expected format and content of the Consultation Report: https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Advice-note-14v2.pdf

For more information and advice about the community consultation process, please see our FAQ: https://infrastructure.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/wp-content/ipc/uploads/projects/General/General-Advice-00632-1-170702%20s47%20Community%20Consultation%20FAQ.pdf