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Advice to Warwickshire County Council

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Enquiry

From
Warwickshire County Council
Date advice given
21 March 2011
Enquiry type
Email

I understand the LPA's are required to submit an Local Impact Report (LIR). Would Warwickshire County Council be expected to do this as the development in Northamptonshire but abuts Warwickshire? I am particularly interested in what exactly an LIR should incorporate and what are the deadlines for submitting these.

Advice given

Our "Advice Note One: Local Impact Reports" is available through our website. It provides background information about LIRs as well as more information about content and timetables for LIRs. Please find a link below. Unfortunately the IPC does not produce more prescriptive guidance or advice given the diversity of projects we deal with.

http://infrastructure.independent.gov.uk/legislation-and-advice/our-guidance-and-advice/

In response to your particular questions, by virtue of the Planning Act 2008 sections 60(2)(a), 102(5), 102(7) and 102(8)(a) Warwickshire County Council would be eligible to submit a Local Impact Report as the DIRFT III proposal would be in the neighbouring relevant authority. Preparing a LIR is not a requirement but by virtue of the Planning Act 2008 Section 104(2)(b) the Commissioner, or the Secretary of State as appropriate, must have regard to any LIR produced in deciding applications.

With regard to deadlines for any LIR for the DIRFT proposals, an indicative timetable would only be proposed when an application had been formally submitted and if that application were accepted to proceed to examination stage. CLG guidance suggests a period of 6 weeks following the Preliminary Meeting would be an appropriate amount of time in which to submit the LIR.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/guidanceexaminationprocedure.pdf

We advise that authorities start preparing the LIR as soon as they are able to and not wait for the examination invitation. There could also be the need to consider an authority's scheme of delegation in the timescales; it is possible to make representations at the Preliminary Meeting if an authority feels it requires more time. Where several authorities are involved it is possible to consider a joint LIR submission and we strongly encourage early discussions between all relevant authorities on this matter.