Advice to Steve Kirk
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- From
- Steve Kirk
- Date advice given
- 6 June 2014
- Enquiry type
I live in Castle Donington and I am very concerned about the proposed development of the SRFI at Junction 24 of the M1. This is the biggest threat to my village & the other local communities that we have ever faced or are likely to face during our lives. There are many unhappy people in this area re: the lack of publicity for the exhibitions in the Public Consultation for this development. I therefore believe that there has been inadequate notification of this fact and wish to make a formal complaint.
The first attempt at consultation by Roxhill earlier in the year was abysmal, with virtually no leaflets reaching the public in time. I found out about the consultation totally by a fluke viewing of an Internet posting. I therefore attended, but was concerned that there were not many people attending this exhibition, considering the size of the village and the effect it will have on everyone who lives in this community. That was probably due to the lack of publication of the exhibition. Roxhill did say that they would be repeating the consultation due to their lack of effective leaflet distribution. About a week after the said Consultation meeting I received the leaflet that should have arrived well before it. After attending, I did mention it in conversation to a few local people & they had absolutely no idea that this was happening. Again due to the lack of publicity. I waited for the repeat session & was finally informed by a contact that this would take place on Monday 19th May 2014. I waited for my information leaflet on the Consultation to arrive. I heard there were a few leaflets delivered in a few locations from 5th May, but to date - 22 May 2014 - I have still not received any leaflet promoting the Public Consultation and with the date of the Public Consultation now long gone. The timing of the exhibition did not allow the whole village community to attend. The hours of 2.30 - 7.30pm did not allow parents to attend without children hanging on, or allow anyone returning from a late working shift or those who travel a distance from work to attend. There are several notice boards around the village, including one within sight of my house. It would have made sense to at least put a leaflet on all of these boards as a minimum due to the lack of a local newspaper. There was nothing to this effect on the board near to my house. I understand that there were a lot of very unhappy local people completing the feedback forms at the exhibition in Kegworth, prior to the one in Castle Donington. It might be safe to assume that these forms will go unnoticed. How many Castle Donington people would have liked the opportunity to complete one too? I think, as well as other factors in this case, we are all concerned that the assessment for the prediction of the impacts on Castle Donington will have incorrectly estimated the amount of traffic using the main roads through the village. As such the pollutant concentrations and the associated impacts of the development scheme are likely to have been over-estimated. Yet again Roxhill have failed to consult with the local communities through the proper procedure and there has again been inadequate notification of this fact Please consider these comments in the formal complaint of inadequate notice for the Public Consultation on this matter.
Advice given
At this stage of the process the developer should be your first point of contact and it is recommended that you refer to the developer?s website for information on how to contact them. The developer?s project website page describes how they are carrying out their consultation at http://www.eastmidlandsgateway.co.uk/consultation.php and also lists where the documents can be seen and how comments can be made. The page also has links to the consultation leaflet and exhibition boards.
Prior to submitting an application to the Planning Inspectorate, the developer is required to carry out extensive consultation on their proposals. This involves providing information about the proposal to various statutory and non-statutory bodies and the wider community, responding to questions, listening to suggestions, and taking these into account to influence and inform the application ultimately submitted to the Inspectorate. This does not mean that the developer has to accept or agree with every comment or suggestion made but they must give them proper consideration.
Before formally consulting people in the vicinity of the project, the developer must prepare a Statement of Community Consultation (SoCC), having first consulted relevant local authorities about what it should contain. The purpose of the SoCC is to provide details on the consultation process, which the developer intends to undertake with the local community about their project. The developer is then required to carry out their consultation with the local community as set out in the SoCC.
A link to the SoCC can be found on the application documentation page of the developer?s project website at http://www.eastmidlandsgateway.co.uk/documentation.php
Where any person feels that an applicant's pre-application consultation was inadequately carried out, they should seek resolution by approaching the applicant in the first instance. If following this action you remain unsatisfied with the consultation carried out, you may also wish to raise this with the relevant local authority.
Subsequently, when an application is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate following the pre-application stage, there is a 28 day period during which a decision is taken on whether to accept the application for examination. One of the factors to be considered by the Planning Inspectorate at this stage is whether or not the developer?s consultation process has been adequate, and we will invite relevant local authorities to provide us with their comments on the adequacy of the applicant?s consultation. In providing their representation on this matter, the local authority may decide to take into account any comments received from the public on this issue. The Inspectorate, on behalf of the Secretary of State, must have regard to the local authority?s response on the adequacy of consultation in making its decision on whether to accept an application to proceed to be examined.
If the application is accepted for examination, there will be the opportunity to register your views with the Planning Inspectorate and participate in the examination by completing a relevant representation form. Where a person believes they have identified an issue which has not been adequately addressed by the applicant, despite raising it with them as part of their pre-application consultation, they may wish to include this as part of their representation. Relevant representations are used by the Examining Authority to help identify the initial principal issues for examination.
Details about how and when to register will be publicised by the developer in local newspapers and on site notices. Please note that you are unable to register as an interested party during the current (pre-application) stage of the process for this proposal.
The Planning Inspectorate has produced several advice notes to help provide an overview of the PA 2008 process and the opportunities to get involved. These are available via the link below. In this instance I recommend reviewing advice note eight series ? ?How to get involved in the planning process?. I have attached above PDF versions for your reference. You may also access these documents on our website at the following link:
http://infrastructure.planningportal.gov.uk/legislation-and-advice/advice-notes/
You may also find the following guidance and advice note helpful:
Guidance on the Pre-Application Process (The Planning Act 2008): https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/49468/Planning_Act_2008_pre-applications.pdf
Advice note sixteen: The developer?s pre-application consultation, publicity and notification duties: http://infrastructure.planningportal.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Advice-note-16.pdf