Better Transport

If the road departs from local plans, it is considered a departure application. If the council is thinking of approving a departure application, it must tell the Government. If it hasn't, inform the planning department of your regional Government Office. The Government will then decide if it wishes to 'call in' the application and make the decision about the road itself.  

Departures
You will need to see the exact wording of the Local Plan and see whether the scheme is safeguarded, protected or proposed in the plan. You may need a lawyer to advise you whether the planning application is a departure from the local plan or not.

If it is a departure, the council should advertise it as such. If it is not advertised properly you could get the council to withdraw its application and re-advertise it. Advertising the road as a departure from the agreed local plan is likely to stir up more local interest.

If it is a departure application and the council intends to grant planning permission for the road, it needs to tell the Government; if it hasnt, you should. The Government will decide if it wants to be the body making a decision about the road. The Government has 21 days to decision to call it in the application. The power to do so in contained in Section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1999.

Whilst the government is making up its mind its mind it may issue an Article 14 Direction (an article 14 direction under the Town and Country Planning Act) which prevents the council from granting planning permission. This can last indefinitely.

Your scheme does not have to be a departure application to be called in. It need only be controversial enough.

Call ins
Road schemes get called in even when they do not depart from the local plans. The usual criteria for calling in a road proposal are that the proposal is significantly controversial, affects more than the locality, is of more than local concern and is in conflict with national planning policy.

The government proposes (in its 2007 Planning White Paper) to reduce the number of call-ins. The criteria for calling in applications are set out in a Parliamentary Written Answer from July 1999. They relate to proposals that:

• May conflict with national policies on important matters
• Could have significant effects beyond their immediate locality
• Give rise to substantial regional or national controversy
• Raise significant architectural and urban design issues
• May involve the interests of national security or of foreign governments

Get your MP to help push for a call in
It especially helps if your constituency MP is calling for a public inquiry with you. He or she doesn’t need to support your campaign, but could see the need for an independent public inquiry. Get a many constituents as possible to ask the MP to help you get a public inquiry. You will need to do this throughout the objection period.

You should ask your MP to write to the planning minister, and go and meet them and ask them to grant an independent inquiry. If there is time, you could ask your MP to get you a meeting with the minister.

It helps if you can get national and regional groups to help you demonstrate to the government that the scheme is very controversial. It would help to have letters to teh Plannign Minister flooding from these groups, and also from local people.