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Advice given between between 1 October 2009 and 14 April 2015 has been archived.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.
Rail Central (Strategic Rail Freight Interchange)
Enquiry
Certain highway improvements which may form part of the project could be classed as NSIP in their own right and this may require screening of the highway improvements in accordance with Section 22(5)(c) of the Planning Act 2008 to establish whether they will give rise to any likely significant effects. Have PINS had any previous experience of screening highway improvements under this section and what is the process for this.
Advice given
The Planning Inspectorate do not provide legal advice on which applicants and others can rely. Nor do the Planning Inspectorate provide a ?screening? process to determine whether a project is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP); it is for a developer to seek their own legal advice on whether their proposal/part of a proposal would be considered an NSIP.
In respect of the term ?screening?, a developer may request a Screening Opinion from the Secretary State (SoS) under the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2009 to determine whether a project is ?EIA development? for the purposes of the Regulations. ?EIA development? is defined as either Schedule 1 development (which can include some road schemes) or Schedule 2 development which likely to have significant effects on the environment by virtue of factors such as its nature, size or location. The SoS must adopt a screening opinion within 21 days of receipt of the request, but would require sufficient detail about the proposal. Such a Screening Opinion would not be produced for the purposes of s22(5)(c) PA2008.
In the case of the A19 Coast Road junction improvement, I understand that a Screening Opinion was requested by the Highways Agency, the information for which can be found on our website.
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However, my understanding was also that the ?junction improvements? were considered to be an NSIP by virtue of s22(3) i.e. an alteration under the PA2008.
