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Advice given between between 1 October 2009 and 14 April 2015 has been archived.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
I am presently dealing with a pre-application enquiry within our Borough for a solar farm (up to 50MW capacity) and battery energy storage system (40MW capacity). My query is whether the scheme is classified as a nationally Significant Infrastructure Project as their combined capacity is 90MW?
Advice given
The Planning Inspectorate does not have the power to give a legally binding interpretation on whether the proposed development would be classed as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. Only the courts can determine the interpretation of legislation. It is for the developer to decide whether or not to apply for an order granting development consent, taking its own independent legal advice. The Planning Inspectorate, on behalf of the Secretary of State, is only able to decide whether development consent is required for a project, under section 55 of PA 2008, once an application has been formally submitted. However, you may find that the thresholds set out in section 15 of the Planning Act 2008 and The Infrastructure Planning (Electricity Storage Facilities) Order 2020 to be of relevance to your query. The Infrastructure Planning (Electricity Storage Facilities) Order 2020 Explanatory Memorandum sets out the intention of the order.
