Update, 05/01/2021: We have received notification that the appeal hearing due to commence on 13th January has been ‘cancelled’. We await notification of a new date for the hearing.
Update, 10/12/2020: We have today receive a letter from Ashford Borough Council confirming the hearing date as 13th January for up to 3 days. The letter is reproduced below. You must register to participate in the ‘informal virtual hearing’
09/12/2020: The hearing of the appeal against Ashford Borough Council’s decision to refuse the planning application for the proposed ‘East Stour Park’ development has been delayed.
The hearing was due to take place yesterday (8th December 2020) with provision for a second day today. Although no change to the timetable had been published a new date of 13th January 2021 had been shown on the ABC planning portal but this has been removed.
Today a statement by the Planning Inspector was uploaded to the portal that the Secretary of State had considered whether an Environmental Impact Assessment was required for the site. The Secretary of State had confirmed that an EIA was not required, agreeing with ABC’s screening decision.
Ashford Borough Council letter:
With reference to the above appeal, the Planning Inspectorate has now confirmed that the appeal is being dealt with by way of an informal virtual hearing which will start at 10.00am on 13 January 2021 and it is anticipated as sitting for 3 days but the duration is not fixed and will depend on how the evidence emerges.
An Inspector has been appointed by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions under paragraph 1(i) of Schedule 6 to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to determine this appeal.As I indicated in my earlier letter, I have forwarded to the Planning Inspectorate and to the Appellants all comments that I have received from you or other people relating to the application for planning permission which has led to this appeal.
If you wish to see the Council’s reasons for refusal of the application and the appellant’s grounds of appeal, proofs of evidence, summaries and statement of common ground, these may be inspected online at: https://planning.ashford.gov.uk/Planning/details.aspx?systemkey=112528 Should you wish for any further information, please contact the ABC Case Officer named in the application details.
Anyone wishing to attend the hearing must make that interest known to the Planning Inspectorate Case Officer as soon as possible prior to the hearing either by email or telephone message after reading the Hearing Attendance Information set out below, which you should include with your hearing notification letters; please also include the Case Officer’s name and contact details as per the site notice published on the councils website.
Hearing Attendance Information
Before deciding whether to take an active part in the Hearing, you need to think carefully about the points you wish to make. All written submissions from application and appeal stage will be taken into account by the Inspector and re-stating the same points won’t add any additional weight to them.
If you feel that taking part in the Hearing is right for you in whatever capacity, you can participate in a number of ways:
- To take part using video, participants will need to have access to Microsoft Teams (via an app or web browser). This link gives further information on how to use this: https://support.office.com/en-us/teams.
- Alternatively you can take part by telephone. NB Calls would be to an 020 number which will incur charges. https://www.gov.uk/call-charges
If you wish to just observe the event, you should make that clear in your response to the Case Officer. If you wish to take an active part in the discussions, please make clear in your response to the Case Officer if possible, which topic areas you are particularly interested in.
If you want to take an active part but feel unable to for any reason, and/or the points you want to make are not covered in the evidence of others, consider whether someone else could raise them on your behalf.
Registered participants in whatever capacity will receive individual joining instructions, providing details of any requirements, guidance and support whether joining by Teams or telephone.
