The Planning Inspectorate

The Planning Inspectorate

4/11 Eagle Wing / Direct Line / 0117-372 8237
Temple Quay House / Switchboard / 0117-372 3000
2 The Square
Temple Quay / GTN / 1371-8389
Bristol BS1 6PN / e-mail:
http://www.planning-inspectorate.gov.uk
Mr M Highton
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Runcorn
Cheshire
xxxxxxx / Your Ref:
Our Ref: APP/D0650/A/10/2121435
Date: 19 August 2010

Dear Mr Highton

APPEAL AT OCCASIONS, ASCOT AVENUE, RUNCORN, WA7 4YW

Thank you for your email of 22 July requesting information from the Planning Inspectorate. As your request relates to information held in respect of a planning appeal decision, your request is considered to be for environmental information as defined in regulation 2(1)(c) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). Your request has therefore been considered under the EIR rather than the Freedom of Information Act.

Please note that telephone numbers, email addresses and signatures of individuals has been redacted under regulation 13 of the EIR. This information is considered to be the personal data of third parties, and they are not considered to have a reasonable expectation that it will be made publicly available. Disclosure would therefore breach the first data protection principle of fair and lawful processing.

The Information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Documents produced by government officials and will be Crown

Copyright. You can find details on the arrangements for re-using Crown copyright on OPSI (Office of Public Sector Information) at:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/index.htm

In line with your request, I have sent electronic copies of documents where it is practical to do so. However, not all appeal information is held electronically and as mentioned above, it has been necessary to redact personal information from correspondence.

I turn now to your requests, as numbered in your email. I have assumed that the information you require relates to the appeal as a whole, rather than just the application.

1. A copy of the appeal decision is attached to my covering email.

2. and 3. I have provided you with copies of all appeal documents submitted for the Inspector’s consideration; some have been sent electronically and some by post as appropriate. All of the information submitted has been “used” in the sense that it was read and taken into account by the Inspector. However, the weight accorded to the evidence for and against allowing the appeal was for him alone to decide.

4. I have provided you with copies of all internal correspondence, notes and forms on the appeal file.

5. I have provided you with copies of the relevant planning policies submitted with the appeal questionnaire, our administrative ‘desk instructions’ for the written representations procedure, and a copy of the Town and Country Planning (Appeals) (Written Representations Procedure) (England) Regulations 2009. The ‘Inspector’s Handbook’ gives advice to Inspectors on planning casework and I have provided you with copies of chapters GP1: The Role of the Inspector, GP5: Writing Decisions, GP8: Use of Conditions, and extracts from PT6: Retail Development.

6, 7, 8 and 9. I have provided you with copies of Inspector’s Handbook chapter GP3 ‘Site Inspections’ and our administrative ‘desk instructions’ for site visit procedure and handling requests to attend a site visit. I have also provided the ‘Guide to taking part in planning appeals proceeding by written representations’ which is publicly available on the Planning Portal.

10. I have provided you with a copy of the Inspector’s notes from the site visit.

11. I am satisfied that all the information available relating to your request has been provided.

12. A copy of the appeal decision was sent to Halton Borough Council, the appellant and to those local residents who requested one from us directly in their correspondence. Copies of these letters are provided (see 2. and 3. above).

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your request, you may ask for an internal review. Details of our internal review procedures and the role of the Information Commissioner's Office are set out in the attached leaflet.

Only a successful legal challenge in the High Court can lead to an Inspector’s decision being reconsidered. For details about the time available to do this, please see the attached leaflet “Challenging the Decision in the High Court”. I should also explain that we have no power to extend the Court’s time limits for making such a challenge.

Yours sincerely

Bob Palmer

Quality Assurance Unit

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