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Advice given between between 1 October 2009 and 14 April 2015 has been archived.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
Mr Kirkaldie expressed concerns in respect of the Planning Inspectorate's handling of three planning appeals at the site of the former Manston Airport in conjunction with RiverOak Strategic Partner's emerging application for development consent.
Advice given
The planning appeal process under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA) is different to the decision-making process for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects under the separate Planning Act 2008 (PA2008). The handling of these processes is distinct.
The Public Inquiry into the four planning appeals at the site of the former Manston Airport sat in March 2017, the Inquiry has concluded and the Inspector is writing the decision on these appeals. Having consulted with colleagues, I understand that the decision in respect of these appeals is expected to be issued soon.
The PA2008 process places specific duties on prospective NSIP applicants in respect of how they must consult with statutory consultees (s42 PA2008) and local communities (s47 PA2008) at the Pre-application stage, that is, before an application is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate. In the Pre-application stage, it is entirely for the applicant to decide when they carry out their statutory consultation exercises. We understand that RiverOak Strategic Partners Ltd (RSP) opened its statutory consultation period for its development proposals on 12 June 2017. The consultation period will close on 23 July 2017, having run for 42 days.
I can assure you that the Planning Inspectorate has no influence as to the timing of RSP’s consultation. I can also assure you that there is no question of the Inspectorate having any regard to the prospective applicant’s statutory consultation in respect of the timing of the determination of the four planning appeals. Decisions will be issued when the Inspector is ready to issue them.
If an application for development consent is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate by RSP it will be subject to rigorous testing in the 28-day Acceptance period before a decision is made about whether it is of a satisfactory standard to be examined. These tests include detailed scrutiny as to whether the applicant has satisfied its consultation duties under s42 and s47 of the PA2008, referred to above.
All of the legislation and statutory guidance that governs the PA2008 process is accessible on the Planning Inspectorate’s website, together with our own suite of non-statutory advice notes: attachment 1
