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Advice given between between 1 October 2009 and 14 April 2015 has been archived.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
Local Authorities have had a well-established role in the Secretary of State’s determination of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects and in implementing/enforcing Development Consent Orders. Given that metro-mayors have responsibility for Planning and Transport, I would be grateful if you would please specify the role, if any, a metro-mayor would have in the determination of a NSIP affecting land in their Combined Authority and how it would relate to the role(s) previously played by the Local Authority or Local Authorities affected.
Advice given
Local authorities have a special role in the Planning Act 2008 (PA2008) process which, dependant on their spatial status, enables them to:
• Engage with the preparation of an applicant’s Statement of Community Consultation;
• Submit representations about the adequacy of an applicant’s Pre-application consultation; and
• Submit a Local Impact Report (see our Advice note one).
Local authorities are usually also a discharging authority (and/ or consultee) in respect of Requirements attached to a Development Consent Order.
The status and role of local authorities is prescribed by the PA2008.
Metro mayors/ combined authorities do not have a prescribed role in the PA2008 process. At the Pre-application stage of the process therefore, it will be at the discretion of an applicant whether a metro mayor is notified and directly consulted about an application. Notwithstanding this, a metro mayor would never be precluded from having his/ her say in respect of shaping a project at the Pre-application stage as he/ she could engage with the Applicant through the processes set out under s47 of the PA2008.
The Planning Inspectorate has statutory functions in respect of the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017. When consulting on the information to be included in an Environmental Statement the Inspectorate can consult with metro mayors/ combined authorities as non-prescribed consultation bodies where we consider that they have relevant functions and responsibilities which are akin to other statutory consultation bodies (see our Advice note three).
If an application is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate, and subsequently accepted for examination, in order to engage with the examination of a specific application metro mayors/ combined authorities will need to register as an Interested Party in the same way as any other non-prescribed individual or organisation (see our Advice note eight).
