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Advice to Natural England

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Enquiry

From
Natural England
Date advice given
8 April 2020
Enquiry type
Phone

Natural England wished to discuss the Planning Inspectorate’s process from the point of application with respect to the information supplied by an applicant to support an assessment under the requirements of the Habitat Regulations. In particular, it wished to understand how the Inspectorate can test the extent to where matters remain outstanding from discussions held between the Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies (SNCBs) and developers pre-application.

Advice given

Discussion was held about the advice the Planning Inspectorate is able to provide at pre-application to developers, including discussion about how developers engage with statutory bodies and key stakeholders to agree an Evidence Plan to support the assessment. The Inspectorate acknowledged the absence of an overseeing organisation in relation to evidence plans and both organisations agreed to raise this point internally. The discussion continued whereby the Planning Inspectorate set out its expectations at acceptance, with reference to Advice Note 10. These expectations include the receipt of evidence of consultation with SNCBs and evidence of how its advice has been addressed. The role of Statements of Common Ground was discussed. Following on from this a discussion was held about how both organisations could work together to best assist the Examining Authority should the application be accepted for examination. The Planning Inspectorate advised that where possible Natural England should take full advantage of the opportunity to submit a Relevant Representation within the period for doing so, adding that detailed content is likely to be most helpful. Natural England highlighted that there is often a large amount of information to absorb during examination and it would be helpful to know which submissions may be of most value to the Examining Authority. The Planning Inspectorate acknowledged this and advised that while each examination is different there may be some practical advice that could be shared and that this could be the subject of further discussion.