Within hours of publishing details of the planning appeal hearing scheduled for later this month, I’ve now received confirmation that the appeal hearing has been cancelled by the government's planning inspector:
Please see additional information below as supplied to the council. I'll update on any revised arrangements as soon as I have more information from the Planning Inspectorate.
Dear LPA,
I write regarding the above appeal.
Following a review of the case file, and notwithstanding the initial validation by the Planning Inspectorate, the Inspector is
concerned this may not be a valid appeal.
An email setting out the Inspector’s concerns and requesting responses from both main
parties will follow separately.
The Inspector also notes the correspondence from the Planning Inspectorate’s Environmental Services Team to the appellant
regarding the submitted Environmental Statement.
The Inspector considers that addressing the matters raised appropriately prior
to the scheduled commencement on 30 July would be very difficult if not impossible to achieve.
Furthermore, given the issues and the level of local interest in the appeal, and with reference to s319A of the Town and Country
Planning Act 1990 (as amended), the Inspector considers that if the appeal is found to be valid, it should be addressed by way of
an Inquiry, rather than a Hearing.
Consequently, the Council should immediately notify all interested parties that the scheduled Hearing for this appeal on 30 July
2024 will not take place, and that further details regarding this appeal will be made available in due course.
