Advice to Chief Executive, Shape East
Back to listEnquiry
- From
- Chief Executive, Shape East
- Date advice given
- 27 September 2011
- Enquiry type
What is the role of CABE / Design Council within the IPC process?
Advice given
The newly merged Design Council and Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) is a statutory consultee on all proposed applications for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) that are likely to affect land in England. As a statutory consultee they can play a significant role throughout the NSIP process and this role is set out in various sections of the Planning Act 2008 (PA 2008).
Statutory consultees are prescribed in Schedule 1 of the Infrastructure Planning (Applications: Prescribed Forms and Procedure) Regulations 2009. If a scoping opinion is requested, the IPC must consult the relevant prescribed consultation bodies in Schedule 1 before adopting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) scoping opinion. These consultees may state any information that they consider should be included within the application’s Environmental Statement (ES).
Where the Design Council/CABE is a statutory consultee for an NSIP application, the developer must consult them and a range of other consultees under s.42 of PA 2008 (duty to consult) and have regard to any relevant responses they receive under s.49 of PA 2008.
Pre-application consultation by a developer is a key part of the Planning Act 2008 regime. We encourage consultees to fully engage developers at this stage to facilitate well prepared NSIP proposals. Once an application has been submitted to the IPC it may be too late accommodate any suggested alterations.
As well as being consulted at certain stages during the pre-application phase, should an application be accepted to progress to examination, statutory consultees like Design Council/CABE gain ‘interested party’ status as defined under s.102 of PA 2008.
As an interested party the Design Council/CABE would be notified of key application dates, receive copies of all general correspondence from the IPC and have the opportunity to submit further written representations during the relevant parts of the application’s examination.
Further information on this subject can be found in our ‘Advice Note Eleven: Working with public bodies in the infrastructure planning process (part 1)’. A link to the Advice Note is provided below.