Brechfa Forest West Wind Farm

Enquiry received via email

Brechfa Forest West Wind Farm

22 June 2012
Caroline Evans

Enquiry

Who can speak at hearings? What can be raised at hearings?
Can anyone and/or an Interested Party make a written sbmission after the deadline set for these in the examination timetable having passed?

Advice given

To keep you in the picture, James Smith called me yesterday afternoon and I explained the situation to him as follows:
He himself is not registered as an Interested Party, which means that he can only speak at the hearings or make written submissions on his own behalf if the Examining Authority, Mr Macey, allows him to do so.
If you, as the registered representative of the Brechfa Forest Energy Action Group, (as the registered Interested Party) allow him to speak on behalf of the group, then he has the right to speak at the hearings. However, at Issue-specific hearings (ie the hearings that have just taken place) the agenda is set by the Examining Authority. In other words it is at the Examining Authority's discretion whether or not to allow the introduction of new issues that he hasn't already set out in his agenda.
At Open-floor hearings on the other hand, Interested Parties have the right to raise any issue they consider relevant to the examination of the application - subject to the Examining Authority's control of the hearing. For the Brechfa Forest West application the Open floor hearings are scheduled for the 11 July 2012 - see the web-site for the details: attachment 1.
The paragraph from the CLG guidance on the examination of projects particularly relevant here is paragraph 102:
Rule 14 of the Procedure Rules requires that oral submissions must be based on an interested parties? relevant or written representation. This is to ensure that the hearing can focus primarily on the matters for which it has been arranged, as set out in paragraph 100. However, subject to the Examining authority?s discretion as to the conduct of the hearing, rule 14 does not prevent someone from referring to matters not included in their written representation where it is relevant to the issues under consideration at the hearing, or to the examination more generally.
As the deadlines for the submission of written representations and responses to questions set in the timetable in relation to this application are now passed, it would be at the discretion of the Examining Authority to decide whether or not to accept any written submissions which are not a summary of the case put at the hearing at this point in time. This would be the case whether anything is submitted by someone not registered as an Interested Party, by an Interested Party, or on behalf of an Interested Party. However while the examination is still on-going, the Examining Authority could, if they felt it necessary, ask further written questions and introduce further deadlines for written submissions which would then make it possible for Interested Parties to make written representations. You can find the current examination timetable appended to the letter issued on 18 June 2012 and displayed on our web-site: attachment 2
I can acknowledge that we have received the document that you sent us this morning and will let you know shortly whether or not the Examining Authority is accepting it to take into consideration as part of the examination.
I would be grateful if you could also forward this email to James Smith as I don't have his email address to hand. He might find it useful to see the advice set out in writing and some of it expanded on with references to the relevant paragraphs in the guidance.


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