South Gloucestershire Council Community Infrastructure Levy Examination

INSPECTOR’S ADVICE NOTE AND HEARING PROGRAMME

1. Introduction

1.1 This Note has been prepared to assist those who wish to participate further in the Examination. There will be no Pre-Hearing Meeting (PHM).

1.2 MsPenny Adams is the Programme Officer (PO). Any matters which the Council or participants wish to raise with the Examiner should be addressed to the Programme Officer.

1.3 Published alongside these notes are the Examiner’s Pre-Hearing Questions.

2. The Hearing

2.1 Assuming that at least one party who made representations still wishes to be heard, a hearing will take place on Wednesday 10 December 2014 starting at 10 am. The hearing is expected to last 1 day, but the 11this reserved for any overrun. The hearing venue is the Kingswood Civic Centre, High Street,Kingswood. If no representor wishes to be heard, no hearing will be held. The Examiner would then conduct theExamination on the basis of the written material only, including any responses to his Pre-hearing Questions. Any representor can respond to the Pre-hearing Questions relevant to the representation previously made and does not need to be a hearing participant to respond.

2.2 A number of parties previously indicated a wish to be heard. Taking into account the Council’s published modifications, the subsequentdiscussions and agreement between the Council and some parties, and the necessary focus of the Examination on the content of the Draft Charging Schedule, it is the Examiner’sexpectation that only the following may still wish to be heard.

Hearing programme/participants

  1. Preliminary matters.
  1. Residential rate, outside the identified strategic areas:

A Developer Consortium represented by Savills.

South West HARP Consortium represented by Tetlow King

  1. Geographic extent of the identified strategic area:

Cribbs Mall Nominees, John Baylis Ltd and Baylis Estates Ltd represented by Nathaniel Lichfield Partnership.

  1. Retail rate:

Cribbs Mall Nominees, John Baylis Ltd and Baylis Estates Ltd represented byNathaniel Lichfield Partnership.

  1. Other rates:

Transport for Greater Bristol, Southwest Transport Network, Rail Futurerepresented by Mr D Redgewell.

2.3 Please would the above potential participants confirm to the PO whether or not they intend to appear and for which matters. If any other representor wishes to be heard please inform the PO. In both cases such requests should be made by 10 November. An updated hearing programme/list of participants will then be sent to participants and published on the Council’s Examination webpage.

2.4 The Examiner will have equal regard to views put orally at the hearing or in writing. Attendance at the hearing is only necessary if you wish to participate in a discussion on the issue.

2.5 Only those who have made representations on the Draft Charging Schedule and who have indicated in advance that they want to participate at the hearing will be allowed to speak. The hearing sessions are open to all to observe, but questions or comments from non-participants will not be allowed.

2.6 The hearing will be a discussion led by the Examiner in a roundtable format. The purpose of the hearing is to concentrate on the matters that the Examiner needs to explore and clarify, having taken into account all the written material. It should not be used simply to repeat a case already set out in representations.

2.7 Before the hearing, the Examiner will have read all the material submitted in response to his questions. Other participants should read such material in so far as they want to participate. There will be no formal presentation of evidence. No new evidence or documents should be submitted after the deadline below, at the hearing or afterwards unless specifically requested by the Examiner. The hearing is not the venue for raising for the first time technical/numerical problems. Any differences in data should be highlighted and explained in the pre-hearing statements and the Statements of Common Ground as requested in the Pre-hearing Questions.

2.8 The Examiner will prepare a short agenda for the hearing which will highlight the matters which will be the focus of the discussion. The PO will distribute it to participants before the hearing and it will be posted on the Examination webpage.

3. Responding to the Examiner’s Questions

3.1 The Examiner has prepared a list of questions on which further comments are invited.

3.2 All further statements/Statements of Common Ground in response to the Examiner’s questions must be received by the PO by noon Wednesday 19 November . Meeting this deadline is essential to allow the Examiner to prepare for the hearing. All statements will be placed on the Examination webpage after the deadline. The deadline is for receipt of both electronic and paper copies.

3.3 The Council should respond to all the questions listed (unless otherwise indicated). There is no need to repeat or restate matters set out in supporting evidence, but it should be clear the extent to which reliance is placed on that supporting evidence with cross references to specific parts of the evidence.

3.4 Representors may submit a response to the questions, but this must be limited to those questions directly related to the scope of their original representation. A response to the questions is not necessary if the points have already been adequately covered in the representation. Respondents not participating in the hearing have the same opportunity as participants to respond in writing to the questions, so far as they are relevant to their original representation.

3.5 The Appendix sets out the requirements for the further statements.

Simon Emerson

Examiner

17October 2014

Appendix - Format for all response statements

  1. Please send emailed electronic versions of all further statements and appendices to the PO (in Word or PDF format), as well as the paper copies specified below.
  2. Submissions should be succinct, with the avoidance of unnecessary detail and repetition of the original representation. It is the quality of the reasoning that is important. There is no need for verbatim quotations from published material, simply provide a clear cross reference.
  3. All parties should provide 3 paper copies of their response statements which should be on A4 paper.
  4. Any supporting material in the form of appendices to the statement should be limited to those which are essential and should not contain extracts from any publication that is already before the Examination, such as the Council’s documents and nationally available Government guidance. The name of the document, its Council reference where applicable, and a clear paragraph or page reference is all that is necessary. Any appendices should have a contents page and be paginated. Anyone submitting appendices should indicate in their statement which parts are particularly pertinent and on which they are especially relying.

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