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Advice given between between 1 October 2009 and 14 April 2015 has been archived.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.
Enquiry
The Scoping Opinion contains reference to night flights. Please could you advise whether the inclusion of night flying in the scoping report to the Inspectorate was already there, or was it specifically added at the request of the Government/Planning Inspectorate.
Advice given
RiverOak’s Scoping Report paragraph 11.6.10 states that the “airport will be operational during the day and may be operational to some extent at night”. Therefore RiverOak have included in their Scoping Opinion the potential to undertake some night flights and are therefore proposing to assess the impact of those flights. The assessment of noise effects would then include significance criteria relating to night time noise effects.
At pre-application stage the Planning Inspectorate will advise applicant’s on the technical scope of their documentation, including their Environmental Impact Assessment but have no ability to dictate actual aircraft operations such as night flights. We would advise an applicant to assess a worst case scenario (e.g. night time flights), to ensure that the worst potential effects that could be experienced by receptors (such as residents) are presented with the application documents. This is to allow the Examining Authority to come to a balanced view on the merits of the scheme when making a recommendation to the Secretary of State as to whether to consent a proposed development.
We are not aware of any other discussions that RiverOak may be having with the Government regarding night flights, however Mr Freudmann could be referring to RiverOak’s ongoing discussions with the Civil Aviation Authority regarding the aerodrome licence, which would include agreement of the operating parameters of the airport.
