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Public Consultation - what is 'adequate'?

9 replies

DoomedITellYou · 22/11/2012 14:08

Can anyone give me any advice about planning applications and public consultations?

What methods are considered 'adequate' for councils and planning applicants to use to publicise their plans during a public consultation period?

We have just found out about an application for a waste management facility on the edge of our new development. A change in the council's waste management strategy has opened the door for this, by designating the land next to us as a possible landfill site. The Council say they consulted with the public over it last year, but none of the residents here knew anything about it. The planning applicants also say they consulted, yet only a tiny minority of households received a notification. The housebuilders (there are 4 or 5 different ones on the development) also say they knew nothing about it.

Also, the council say the site has been earmarked as potential landfill since the early 2000s, yet none of our solicitors' searches found anything relating to it.

Thanks in advance if you can offer any advice or similar experience.

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Anifrangapani · 23/11/2012 22:43

It depends if you are in a parished area or not. The planning app should go to statutory consultees - locally that is the immediate neighbours, parish council, highways, environment agency. They may have put it in the local plan or other strategic planning docs.

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DoomedITellYou · 27/11/2012 15:38

Thanks Anifrangapani, sorry I didn't reply sooner, I've been away from my PC since I posted.

We belong to a neighbouring parish at present and they say they put it in their monthly newsletter. Interestingly there are a lot of residents from that village who also say they knew nothing about it.

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golemmings · 28/11/2012 22:11

And when you do a search you only get information about the land you pay for. The first time I was asked to complete a mineral survey I included details of the adjacent land that had been mined and had permission for extraction. It seemed reasonable to include it but was all removed before before being issued because the applicant hadn't paid for that bit of land to be searched.

If its been in the Local Plan or the Waste Plan for a decade then your solicitor should have picked up on it. It's easy to check though. the library will have a copy of old documents or it might still be on the council's website.

Public consultations are quite tricky, most people aren't interested in the early stages because there's nothing definite to see and at the later stages they figure there's no point in getting involved because its a done deal. It will have been advertised but some people take great joy in taking down the posters and site notices. It's weird.

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DoomedITellYou · 29/11/2012 11:49

Thanks golemmings. It's all quite complicated. One of my fellow residents works in central Government so she's analysing documents and taking advice about the consultation thing. And our MP has now got involved.

The Waste Plan is due to be finalised at a planning meeting in December. Unfortunately we were not consulted about that either so have not been able to register our objections and cannot attend the meeting.

Our master developers are obviously objecting and taking lots of heavyweight advice so hopefully we will get enough support to beat the application.

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Billwoody · 29/11/2012 11:54

If the waste plan is going to a planning meeting in Dec are your district/county councillors aware of your issue. They are the ones that should be representing residents' views whether or not you have objected in the statutory consultation period.
MPs don't have much sway in these things.