Are there any obligations on applicants to notify The Planning Inspectorate of non-statutory consultation. How would the Planning Inspectorate ensure that consultation is conducted properly. How does non-statutory consultation relate to the production of a Statement of Community Consultation. RiverOak intends to set out how they will have considered the responses to both consultations in their Consultation Report, how does this relate to the pre-application consultation duties.

In respect of your query regarding notification, when a developer wishes to undertake consultation with specific groups (these being set out in legislation as local authorities, landowners and those with an interest in the land and statutory bodies), they notify the Planning Inspectorate on or before commencing this consultation. In respect of consultation with local communities, there is no formal requirement for a developer to notify the Planning Inspectorate in the same way as noted above, however, there is a section of the PA2008 that sets out the statutory steps that a developer must take before they can commence this type of consultation. In summary, the legislation requires a developer to prepare and publish a Statement of Community Consultation (SoCC).
The relevant local authorities must be consulted by the developer on the content of the SoCC. The role of the local authority at this stage is to provide expertise about the make-up of its area, including whether people in the area might have particular needs or requirements, whether the authority has identified any groups as difficult to reach and what techniques might be appropriate to overcome barriers to communication. The local authority may also provide advice on the appropriateness of the developer’s suggested consultation techniques and methods. The local authority’s aim in such discussions should be to ensure that the people affected by the development can take part in a thorough, accessible and effective consultation exercise about the proposed project.
The final SoCC will highlight how the developer proposes to consult with the local community and will provide information to the public on how to make a representation and when. The developer has a statutory duty to publicise a statement about where the SoCC will be made available and will provide details of how to respond to their consultation.
After this consultation period, the developer must have regard to any relevant responses. As part of the application documents the developer must provide a consultation report demonstrating how they have had regard to responses.
The consultation report must:
a. Give an account of the statutory consultation, publicity, deadlines set, and community consultation activities undertaken by the developer at the Pre-Application stage under s42, s47 and s48
b. A summary of the relevant responses to the separate strands of consultation; and
c. The account taken of responses in developing the application from proposed to final form, as required by s49(2).
Should an application be submitted, the Planning Inspectorate on behalf of the Secretary of State has a 28 day period to decide whether or not to accept the application. During this 28 day period, the Planning Inspectorate will examine all of the documents provided, including the consultation report. The Planning Inspectorate has the ability under Regulation 5 (5) of the APFP to request all consultation responses from the developer if seen as necessary.
During the 28 day period, the PA2008 allows relevant local authorities to make representations to the Secretary of State about the adequacy of consultation, to which he or she must have regard but which will not be the sole consideration for determining whether an application should be accepted for examination. Where local authorities are not content with the consultation approach undertaken by the developer, their views should be set out in any “adequacy of consultation” representation they make. This will inform the decision on whether to accept the application. If at any stage of the consultation you have concerns with the way the developer has conducted its consultation then it is recommended that you write to the local authority raising your concerns.
After inspection of the consultation report, the Planning Inspectorate will decide whether the consultation conducted is adequate. If the Secretary of State determines that the consultation is inadequate, he or she can recommend that the developer carries out further consultation activity before the application can be accepted. If the application is accepted, one or more Inspectors will be appointed as an Examining Authority to conduct an examination, which cannot take more than 6 months. Once the examination is completed the examining authority will make a recommendation report to the Secretary of State. It is the responsibility of the Secretary of State (in this case, the Secretary of State for Transport) to make a decision on the application.
We understand that RiverOak are proposing to undertake a non-statutory consultation over the summer. This activity will not therefore have to be conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Planning Act 2008 – the legislation that governs this type of airport-related development. RiverOak will however need to undertake a stage of statutory consultation before an application can be formally submitted. In preparation for that, RiverOak will have to produce a draft Statement of Community Consultation that sets out how they will undertake the consultation activity.
In stating that ‘they will set out how they will have considered the responses to both consultations in a ‘consultation report’’, RiverOak have used discretion in including the non-statutory consultation as part of this exercise. They are not required to do this, however having decided to undertake this course of action it does not mean that the consultation itself would have to retrospectively comply with the Pre-Application consultation duties.
RiverOak can decide to include information gathered from their non-statutory consultation events in their Consultation Report and submit this as an application document. However, the tests that will be applied to the application on submission, in respect of the pre-application duties to consult with the local community, will be applied to the information submitted from the statutory consultation events.
At the acceptance stage, the Inspectorate will be concerned to check that the applicant has fulfilled their duties under s47, s49 and s50 in particular. These section of the Planning Act 2008 relate to the production of a Statement of Community Consultation, undertaking of the activities outlined in the SoCC, having regard to responses made during the statutory consultation and having regard to relevant guidance. The Inspectorate will seek an Adequacy of Consultation representation from the relevant authorities on the particular points and The Inspectorate have been made aware of concerns raised on the non-statutory consultation. To that end your comments on these matters have been noted and will be kept for future reference.