Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment.

Recommendations

That Cabinet:

1.    Delegate authority to the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment in consultation with the Head of Planning and Building Control and Cabinet member for Transport, Jobs and the Local Economy to submit to the Planning Inspectorate all documentation and relevant evidence for their consideration and deal with all procedural matters that may arise in relation to this application and any future applications that fall under the legislation for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.

2.    Agree to the proposal that a report be submitted to the Planning Board on a quarterly basis to provide a summary of all responses submitted from the Council to the Planning Inspectorate in respect of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects in the previous quarter.

Consideration was given to the report which sought approval to delegate the preparation and submission of documents to the Planning Inspectorate, both in relation to the Whitestone Solar Farm project and any future applications that fell under the legislation for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP), to the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Transport, Jobs and the Local Economy. This would ensure they were considered in an efficient and timely manner and within the curtailed timescales imposed by the Planning Inspectorate.

NSIPs were projects of certain types, over a certain size, which were considered by the Government to be so big and nationally important that permission to build them needed to be given at a national level, by the responsible Secretary of State. The thresholds for NSIPs were set out in Sections 15 to 30A of the Planning Act 2008. This process was separate from developments under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, with NSIPs having an emphasis on pre-application work shaping the design of the project.

Rotherham had recently been informed of proposals for a new solar farm and associated infrastructure, known as Whitestone which, due to its scale and energy generating capacity, would be considered as an NSIP. The process could take up to 2 years from when an application was submitted to when a decision would be made. The key milestones were set out in paragraph 1.7 of the report. The preparation of many of the documents outlined in paragraph 1.7 would be carried out in consultation with other internal departments and were not dissimilar to practices carried out on planning applications under the Town and Country Planning Act. This was with the exception of the Local Impact Report (LIR).

The LIR was a key document and was designed to give details of the likely impact of the proposed development on the authority’s area, and it had to be taken into account by PINS and the Secretary of State. The timescale for submission of this was usually limited to 28 days, therefore, there would be limited or no opportunity for Cabinet or Planning Board to consider the contents of these documents. The content of this document would be ‘matters of fact’. The LIR would document the impacts the proposed development would have on the Borough, both positive and negative, but there was no requirement for any analysis, or balancing of these impacts to be undertaken, as that was the role of the Planning Inspector.

The Council’s Constitution pre-dated the submission of the Whitestone Solar Farm proposal and accordingly, it was necessary to determine the governance of this and any future NSIPs. In view of the factual nature of the LIR and all other associated documents, it was recommended that the Constitution be updated and approval of the aforementioned documents be delegated to the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment in consultation with the Head of Planning and Building Control and Cabinet Member. This was in relation to the Whitestone Solar Farm and any future applications that fell under the NSIP legislation.

During the meeting it was reiterated that the Council had no decision making powers in relation to the Whitestone proposals. All decisions would be taken by the Planning Inspectorate and Government. The strong local opposition to the Whitestone proposal was noted by the Leader and he stressed the need for the Government to listen to the views of the local community.

The report was considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board (OSMB), who advised that the recommendations be supported. It did feel that the reference to Whitestone in the title of the report was misleading and they raised some concerns during debate but overall, they supported the recommendations. OSMB requested that a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document be developed to provide clear and accessible guidance on the process for making representations to support Elected Members and residents. It was agreed that this would be produced and published on the Council’s website and sent to Elected Members.

Resolved:

That Cabinet:

1.      Delegate authority to the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment, in consultation with the Head of Planning and Building Control and Cabinet Member for Transport, Jobs and the Local Economy, to submit to the Planning Inspectorate all documentation and relevant evidence for their consideration and deal with all procedural matters that may arise in relation to this application and any future applications that fall under the legislation for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.

2.      Agree to the proposal that a report be submitted to the Planning Board on a quarterly basis to provide a summary of all responses submitted from the Council to the Planning Inspectorate in respect of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects in the previous quarter.

3.      Agree that a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document be developed to provide clear and accessible guidance on the process for making representations to support Elected Members and residents and that this be published on the Council’s website.