12 Hearings Announced As IPC To Allow Cross-Examination

This is entry number 249, published on 8 June 2011, of a blog on the Planning Act 2008 infrastructure planning and authorisation regime. Click here for a link to the whole blog. If you would like to be notified when the blog is updated, with links sent by email, click here.

Today's entry reports on the programme of hearings for the first IPC application and an issue affecting the second.

The Infrastructure Planning Commission is currently examining two applications (and technically even that has only been the case since Tuesday of this week). The Planning Act regime places an emphasis on the examination taking place through written representations, but does allow oral hearings in three situations. Here is how hearings are being addressed in the more advanced of the two applications.

Meanwhile, the examiners of the second application are having to grapple with the issue of application changes. How this is resolved will be of interest to many involved in preparing other applications.

Hearings news

The three types of hearing that can be held are:

open floor hearings (OF hearings) - hearings on general issues that can be requested by anyone who made a valid objection; issue specific hearings (IS hearings) - hearings on particular issues that are held at the discretion of the IPC; and compulsory acquisition hearings (CA hearings) - hearings on the compulsory purchase of land or rights in land that can be requested by anyone who is subject to such powers The first IPC application is for an energy from waste project in Bedfordshire, promoted by Covanta Energy. It has already been announced that five days of IS hearings would be held, the panel of Commissioners originally being of the view that there should not be any, and following the preliminary meeting that there should be one or two on the drafting of the development consent order.

Not surprisingly, the panel received several applications for OF hearings and CA hearings and has decided to hold two days of hearings for the former and five days for the latter.

The full timetable for hearings is (and I don't think this has been collated anywhere else):

Date

Type

Venue

13 May

IS hearing on DCO

Park Inn

13 June

IS hearing on DCO

Park Inn

17 June

IS hearing on waste hierarchy, noise and access

Park Inn

21 June

IS hearing on landscape and visual

Park Inn

22 June

IS hearing on heritage

Park Inn

27 June

CA hearing

Forest Centre

28 June

CA hearing

Forest Centre

29 June

CA hearing

Forest Centre

30 June

...