Advice to Ashurst

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Enquiry

From
Ashurst
Date advice given
2 October 2012
Enquiry type
Phone

Ms Hassan asked if any directions under section 35(4) of the Planning Act 2008 had been made.

Advice given

We confirmed Ms Hassan's understanding that s.35 of the act allowed the Secretary of State, on application, to direct that a project should be treated as a project for which Development Consent is required. This would allow a project that does not meet the definitions of an Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project by reason of its size or scale to none the less be considered via the 2008 Planning Act regime.

We advised that no applications have yet been made that rely upon a s.35 direction; but at least one s.35 direction has been made, in respect of the Silvertown Tunnel project in London.

Applications for directions are not managed by the Planning Inspectorate and any queries about them should be made to the relevant department for that type of infrastructure; for example, the Department for Energy and Climate Change in relation to energy proposals, or the Department for Transport in relation to transport proposals.