The planning officer has now rendered the energy pipe application invalid.

Why is this?

It’s because the applicant hasn’t sent in enough information.

• There still isn’t enough information in the Construction Traffic Management Plan
• A few small changes will need to be made to the route following further investigations
• There are questions about the ownership of the land – it may be that the County Council does not own all of the land in the affected roads

So what needs to be done?

The applicant needs to send in all the missing information and provide evidence that either the County Council owns all the land or that it has served notice on all owners of the land.(this might be done by publishing a notice in the local press, for example).

Where do we go from here?

We recognise that everyone is getting frustrated with the current situation, and the sooner it is resolved, the better.

Once the above information has been submitted and accepted, the eight week determination period will start again. Fresh notices will be put up, and a full three week consultation period will start.

The planning officer will take into account all comments submitted to date. However if you have already submitted comments, and want to make further comments after you have seen the fresh information, you may do so, and those comments will be taken into consideration too.

Once the neighbourhood consultation date has closed, the officer will compile his report ready to go to the next meeting of the planning committee.

Given that essential information has not yet been submitted, it is looking more likely that the application may miss the April meeting, but it’s difficult to say for sure until the rest of the information comes in from the applicant.

If you have any more questions on process please contact Ruth or Altaf.

Ruth and Roz are planning to speak at tomorrow’s County Performance Scrutiny Committee meeting at County Hall, and we shall attend the Trust’s stakeholder liaison committee meeting tomorrow evening.