1. Section 51 advice
  2. Advice in detail

Advice to Susan Kennedy

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Enquiry

From
Susan Kennedy
Date advice given
11 May 2018
Enquiry type
Email

I understand that shortly before the deadine of 28 days consideration of their application, RSP have withdrawn such. Their plan appears to be to resubmit an application. I would be grateful if you would answer some questions.

  1. This will, in effect, mean that their application will recieve considerably longer than the 28 days allocated to such locations given that you will have been examining this application for almost 28 days and will then give a further 28 days on resubmission. Does this not contravene the process or, at least, contradict the spirit of the process?

  2. Was their withdrawal as a consequence of any meetings, discussions, comments or feedback with or from yourselves during the period since they submitted their application? Have you provided them with any preliminary feedback that may have suggested a resubmission might be needed?

Advice given 

  1.   Any resubmission by the Applicant will be treated as a new application for the purposes of the process. The Planning Inspectorate would have up to 28 days to take its decision about whether the application could be accepted for examination.

  2.   The Planning Inspectorate called the Applicant’s legal representatives (BDB Law) on 1 May 2018, setting out its principal concerns in respect of the application documents. Those concerns included:

• An absence of sufficient information within the application documents upon which to the Planning Inspectorate could base a decision about whether the Proposed Development constitutes a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) within the meaning in s23 of the Planning Act 2008. • Gaps in the ecological, archaeological and ground investigation survey data presented within the Environmental Statement (ES) accompanying the application, which create uncertainty in the assessment of likely significant effects. • Inconsistencies/ omissions in the noise and vibration assessment. • The adequacy of the Transport Assessment accompanying the ES. • The adequacy of the Funding Statement.

On 3 May 2018 a teleconference was held between the Planning Inspectorate, BDB Law and RiverOak Strategic Partners (RSP). During this teleconference the Planning Inspectorate repeated its principal concerns (above) in the presence of RSP, who confirmed their intention to withdraw the application. Subsequently the application was formally withdrawn by letter dated 4 May 2018.

Today (11 May 2018) a meeting took place between the Planning Inspectorate and the Applicant at which the Inspectorate provided more detailed s51 advice in respect of the concerns noted within the documents associated with the withdrawn application. A note of the meeting is being prepared and will be published in the usual way in due course.