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Advice to West Sussex County Council

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Enquiry

From
West Sussex County Council
Date advice given
4 July 2023
Enquiry type
Email

“As you are aware, the ten Gatwick local authorities are working collectively on the Northern Runway Project. With regard to Adequacy of Consultation (AoC), the authorities propose to submit a joint representation with a covering letter signed by the ten authorities. In addition, separate AoC representations may be made by individual authorities to address local issues. I am writing on behalf of the joint authorities’ Steering Group seeking clarification on a few matters, as follows: • Is there a requirement for host or neighbouring authorities to submit an AoC representation? I note that your letter of 14 June 2023 states that authorities will be ‘invited’ to submit representations, which suggests that it is not mandatory. • If an authority does not wish to submit an individual AoC representation, does it need to submit anything in response to the invitation i.e. should it just submit a short letter referring to support for the joint representation or is its signature on the covering letter sufficient?”

Advice given

“For context, an Adequacy of Consultation Representation (AoC) is a representation specifically as to whether an applicant has complied, in relation to the proposed application, with: • its duties under sections 42, 47 and 48 of the Planning Act 2008 (PA2008) relating to consultation and publicity; • its duty to consult a relevant local authority about the preparation of the Statement of Community Consultation (SoCC) (whether the Applicant had regard to the local authority’s comments on the draft SoCC); and • the commitments set out in the SoCC in terms of undertaking the Pre-application consultation in compliance with the stated consultation methodology. As to your first question, it is not mandatory for a host or neighbouring local authority to submit an AoC under the PA2008, however it is very much encouraged as the Planning Inspectorate must have regard to any comments it receives from host and neighbouring local authorities in deciding whether to accept an application for Examination. As to your second question, an AoC can be submitted jointly or individually, however it should not be necessary to submit more than one AoC per local authority. If there are any local issues put forward by specific authorities, you may wish to include these in an appendix to the joint AoC, however please note that local authorities are not being asked for views on the merits of the application at this stage, and views about compliance with the statutory duties outlined in the bullet point list above will not prejudice a local authority’s in principle objection to/ support of the application (or any part of it). The signature of the relevant local authority will be sufficient evidence that they are party to the joint AoC, and we will not require individual letters to confirm this; however, I would suggest that each signatory is copied into the email submitting the joint AoC to the Planning Inspectorate for clarity and completeness.”