The list below is a record of advice the Planning Inspectorate has provided in respect of the Planning Act 2008 process.
There is a statutory duty under section 51 of the Planning Act 2008 to record the advice that is given in relation to an application or a potential application and to make this publicly available. Advice we have provided is recorded below together with the name of the person or organisation who asked for the advice and the project it relates to. The privacy of any other personal information will be protected in accordance with our Information Charter which you should view before sending information to the Planning Inspectorate.
Note that after a project page has been created for a particular application, any advice provided that relates to it will also be published under the ‘s51 advice’ tab on the relevant project page.
Advice given between between 1 October 2009 and 14 April 2015 has been archived. View the archived advice.
General
Enquiry
Hi there We’re acting on behalf of a number of NSIP projects looking to undertake statutory consultation over the next few month. Are you providing any guidance on pre-application consultation procedures during the Covid-19 outbreak? As far as we can see a lot, if not all consultation, can be done online, but there are a few sticking points, for example around depositing hard copies of documents. I notice the Welsh Government is looking to relax any requirements around this. Is the Planning Inspectorate aware of the position in England? I would be grateful for any guidance you have. Kind regards
Advice given
Dear Mr Weaver, Thank you for your e-mail. I can confirm that the Inspectorate continues to provide a Pre-application service; all meetings are held digitally via Microsoft Teams. As you are aware, applicants are required to demonstrate that they have complied with all statutory consultation duties set out in the Planning Act 2008 and associated secondary legislation. Whilst we are aware of the current difficulties’ applicants are experiencing in seeking to discharge some of these duties, particularly in relation to making documents (hard and electronic) available at public deposit locations, the Regulations remain in force. On this basis your clients should seek their own legal advice about the effect of the current public health situation on their respective programmes. For the avoidance of doubt, any update to the Regulations amending the requirement to use public deposit locations will require Parliamentary approval. The Inspectorate is not aware of any timescales surrounding this at present. Please regularly check the advice the Planning Inspectorate has issued in relation to COVID-19, which is updated on a regular basis: attachment 1.
