With the UK government now refining plans to move the country out
of lockdown, the Planning Inspectorate are scaling up our
capacity to progress a greater number of cases.
In this update, we outline plans to restart site visits and an
update on the work to implement digital events.
Continuing to decide planning appeals in a timely manner is
crucial to the nation’s economic recovery. Our teams have been
working hard to keep casework moving during this challenging
period. Since mid-March, we have issued more than 2000 appeal and
other case decisions, published 13 local plan letters and
continued to process nationally significant infrastructure
project applications.
Despite having put a halt to site visits and public events that
would contravene social distancing regulations, inspectors
continue to make fair and robust decisions where they are
satisfied they have the evidence necessary to do so. They are,
and have been, deciding appeals:
- through written representations without face to face
evidence;
- on a pilot basis, without visiting the site; and
- where possible progressing cases through holding telephone
case conferences.
However, there are still many complex live cases that require a
hearing or inquiry to gather evidence and it is our priority to
ensure we can progress these as soon as possible.
Not being able to visit sites and hold public events has clearly
had an impact on our ability to deliver at our normal capacity
and, consequently, is impacting our ability to produce average
appeal handling times. We are currently reviewing how we present
these statistics to accurately reflect the Inspectorate’s
performance in terms of length of time for cases to reach
conclusion.
Site visits
As confirmed in the written ministerial statement laid in
parliament today, we will begin to visit sites providing:
- the Inspector can visit the site safely under current
physical distancing guidance; and
- the case requires the Inspector to visit the site in person
in order to progress the case.
If possible, inspectors will undertake site visits alone. If this
is not possible, and access needs to be provided by the
appellant, we will contact the parties directly on how to conduct
the site visit safely and adhere to government guidance on
physical distancing.
In some instances we can progress cases without a site visit.
This might include prior approval cases where the issue in
dispute relates to the interpretation of the General Permitted
Development Order or some enforcement appeals depending on the
specific grounds lodged and the nature of the evidence.
Around 60 cases are currently proceeding in a pilot which uses
photograph or video evidence instead of a site visit. This is
subject to the Inspector being satisfied that she or he has
sufficient information to properly determine the appeal.
Digital events
In our previous
update, we outlined the work to implement digital
events. These are hearings and inquiries for different types of
casework (e.g. planning appeals, national infrastructure, local
plans etc) held via telephone or video conferencing.
This work, originally planned for implementation later in the
year, has been accelerated in response to the urgent need to
progress cases where:
- the Inspector may need to ask questions or hear cross
examination for complex issues;
- there is high level of public interest and a public event
needs to be held; and
- where the legislation governing particular casework requires
such an event to be held in given circumstances (e.g. national
infrastructure and local plan examinations).
The first fully digital hearing took place on Monday 11 May as a
pilot. We hope that at least a further 20 examinations, hearings
and inquiries will follow during May and June. By learning from
preceding cases, we aim to scale up digital events to include
high profile and contentious cases in the following months.
We are currently working with two local authorities to trial
holding the local plan hearing sessions as digital events (by
video/telephone conference) and, if the pilot is successful, our
aim is to be able to offer this, where possible, for all current
examinations.
We recognise the importance of continuing to hold public events,
it is clearly also vital that we ensure all parties can have
confidence in the process. Any changes we implement in terms of
how we run events during this public health emergency need to be
sustainable once the emergency has passed.
See our latest detailed
guidance for more information.
