Various Enquiries by Susan Davies; Nick Hazle; Daniel and Beth Bisley; Mark Panton; Ian Redman; Hilary Gilbert; Linda Moore; Diane Playford; Kerry Fine; Chris Barnett; Hazelle Woodhurst; Paul Sherrington; Jane Harle

Thank you for your correspondence regarding the proposed Rampion 2 Offshore Windfarm application. The proposed application by Rampion Extension Development Limited is at the Pre-application stage of the Planning Act 2008 (PA2008) process and an application for Development Consent has not yet been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate. We are expecting the application to be submitted to the Inspectorate around Spring 2023. Although this may slip. Following on from the Applicant’s targeted onshore cable route consultation which ran from 18 October 2022 to the 29 November 2022 the Applicant has just commenced a further 30 day period of targeted consultation. This consultation presents a potential alternative to a section of our onshore cable route. This is focussed on a 3km (approx) section in the South Downs, north of Patching. The link to the consultation can be found here attachment 1 This consultation is open from 24 February to 27 March 2023. If you have not already done so you can continue to make you views known about this project directly with the Applicant via the following contact details: [email protected] or by writing to Rampion 2 Wind Farm, RWE Renewables UK, Greenwood House, Westwood Way, Coventry CV4 8PB. You may find Planning Inspectorate Advice note 8 useful which provides advice aimed at the local community to assist them in understanding and engaging in the developer’s pre-application consultation Advice Note 8.1: Responding to the developer's pre-application consultation. Please note that the pre-application consultation process is entirely led by the Applicant; the Planning Inspectorate has no involvement in it. The Applicant is responsible for ensuring that it complies with the legislative requirements surrounding consultation, which are set out in the Planning Act 2008. However, when an application is formally submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for Examination, an assessment is made on whether the application is of a satisfactory standard to proceed to an examination. One key element of this assessment is to check whether the Applicant has fulfilled its statutory consultation duties. To help make an informed decision on this matter the Inspectorate writes to all host and neighbouring Local Authorities for their views on the adequacy of the consultation. If you have concerns about the adequacy of the consultation carried out by the Applicant, we advise that you get in contact with West Sussex County Council, any comments you make to them can be taken into consideration when we then ask local authorities for an Adequacy of Consultation Response during the acceptance stage of the process. If the application is subsequently accepted for Examination, parties can register as an Interested Party by making a Relevant Representation for the appointed Examining Authority to consider. Further information can be found in the Planning Inspectorate’s Advice Note 8.2: How to register to participate in an Examination The appointed Examining Authority will make an initial assessment of the issues arising from the submitted application as well as from the Relevant Representations received, which will inform its Examination of the proposed development. To assist parties in understanding the Planning Act 2008 process, the Planning Inspectorate has prepared a suite of Advice Notes. The Advice Note 8 series provides an overview for members of the public of the planning process for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects. These Advice Notes are available to view on the National Infrastructure Planning website here; attachment 2 You may wish to note that the Planning Inspectorate has set up a Project Page for this project. All documents received and issued during the course of the Examination if the project is accepted will be published to this page. I hope this information is of assistance.