Advice to Phil Gilchrist

Enquiry

• From: Phil Gilchrist
• Date advice given: 29 January 2016
• Enquiry type: Email

As far as I am aware there has been no activity with regard to this proposal, nor a response to the scoping opinion of 7th August 2015. Is there a period beyond which the material is ‘out of date’ or a time limit for the applicant to respond to the points raised?

Advice given

There is no time limit within which the applicant has to address any points raised in the scoping opinion, and the applicant is able to request a further scoping opinion if it wishes to. However, it is a matter of judgment for the applicant, in consultation with the relevant statutory bodies, including the relevant local authorities, as to whether additional work is need to inform the Environmental Impact Assessment and application as a whole.

As follow up to the scoping opinion, we encourage all applicants to maintain discussions with statutory bodies and the local community throughout the pre-application process so that any application contains information that is helpful for the examination (if the application is accepted for examination). The applicant is also required to formally consult with statutory bodies and the local community and this normally happens after the scoping stage, with timings subject to the applicant’s discretion.

The applicant has not yet undertaken statutory consultation on the project to date, and at that stage, there will be the opportunity for you and others to identify information that you consider is needed to understand the application in full. The examination stage also allows for any interested person to make a representation and for the Inspector(s) to request further information as well.