I would like some clarification on your S51 advice given to David Harries of Mynydd y Gwynt Limited on the 21st August 2014. Mynydd y Gwynt Limited submitted their finalised application for this wind farm on the 31st July 2014 and it was accepted on the 20th August 2014. How can PINS be offering the company advice after the submission, and acceptance date, on how to modify their application? Here I refer to the advice given on the possibility of including a Book of Reference (BoR) with their application.

You will be aware that the Planning Inspectorate acting on behalf of the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government issued a decision to accept the Mynydd y Gwynt application to proceed to examination on the 20 August 2014.
The letter contained advice issued under section 51 of the Planning Act 2008 (PA2008) in relation to the section 55 checklist issued on the 21 August, which is not uncommon, to assist the applicant in considering what action (if any) to take and when.
You will note from the section 55 checklist that the submitted Consultation report and Explanatory Note associated to the Book of Reference (BoR) was considered by the Planning Inspectorate to comply with the requirements for acceptance. This however was based on an approach which was limited to whether procedural requirements were met based on the information on the face of these report. The Planning Inspectorate therefore considers on the evidence available in this case that it would be unreasonable to conclude at this stage that a Book of Reference is required.
In the light of the points made above, you should be mindful of the strict timetable for the Planning Inspectorate?s examination of applications, and of the significant risk of delay to the examination timetable if further work has to be carried out and completed during the examination. If any information to support the proposed application has been omitted in error, then the Inspectorate would welcome its submission at commencement of the examination. As a result the Planning Inspectorate has advised the applicant to review their BoR or their Explanatory Note thereof and remove all doubt on whether or not a Book of Reference is required by explicitly confirming that this is the case.