Agenda item

The Chairman to respond to any questions received from members of the public for which notice has been given in accordance with Procedure Rule 10.

The Executive received the following question in accordance with Procedure Rule 10 from Mr Michael Hyman of Farnham:

“As you may be aware, implementing consent for Farnham’s Brightwells and Memorial Hall project was confirmed on 9 September by issue of the Decision Notice.

You may also be aware that this is an Environmental Impact Assessment project, the Town and Country Planning Regulations 2011 governing which require, and I quote from Part 1, Paragraph 3(4): “The relevant planning authority or the Secretary of State or an inspector shall not grant planning permission or subsequent consent pursuant to an application to which this regulation applies unless they have first taken the environmental information into consideration, and they shall state in their decision that they have done so.

Also, Schedule 4 of the Regulations details the Information for inclusion in environmental statements, including, and I quote from Part 1 para 6 and Part 2 para 5: “A non-technical summary of the information provided ….”

This is to ensure that not only the planning officers, but also the public and non-technical councillors, can assess the likely consequences of the development on a fully informed basis BEFORE permission is granted.  

However, you may not be aware that a Non-Technical Summary for the whole project has NOT been provided, and that the Portfolio Holder for the project has confirmed that further assessment of the Traffic Impacts is required, but that this will not be carried out until AFTER work on the project has commenced.

Will you please confirm that the Implementing Consent for this project is therefore in breach of the Planning Regulations?”

The East Street (Brightwells) project is authorised by the extant planning permission under WA/2016/0268 and prior to that, the permissions under WA/2012/0912 and WA2008/0279. The original Environmental Statement  submitted as part of the 2008 Permission and the addendums submitted in 2012 and 2016  were comprehensively assessed and considered to satisfactorily address the environmental impacts of the scheme. The recent decision to grant permission under s73 for minor material amendments under WA/2016/0268 included an EIA addendum that updated the original EIA.  Although a “Non Technical Summary” was not submitted with that application, it was provided in summary form.

May I confirm therefore that the extant permission has been lawfully granted and that there is no breach of the EIA Regulations.”

The Leader, Cllr Julia Potts, responded:

“The East Street (Brightwells) project is authorised by the extant planning permission under WA/2016/0268 and prior to that, the permissions under WA/2012/0912 and WA2008/0279. The original Environmental Statement  submitted as part of the 2008 Permission and the addendums submitted in 2012 and 2016  were comprehensively assessed and considered to satisfactorily address the environmental impacts of the scheme. The recent decision to grant permission under s73 for minor material amendments under WA/2016/0268 included an EIA addendum that updated the original EIA.  Although a “Non Technical Summary” was not submitted with that application, it was provided in summary form.

May I confirm therefore that the extant permission has been lawfully granted and that there is no breach of the EIA Regulations.”