Upon receipt of APL’s application, the Planning Inspectorate has 28 days to decide whether to accept it for examination.
If the application is accepted for examination, APL will formally notify City & County of Swansea Council, the community councils in the near vicinity of the site south of Felindre, local landowners and other statutory consultees. These stakeholders will receive a copy of the accepted application documents.
In addition, a notice will be published at or near the site and in local newspapers to publicise the accepted application and to provide information to local people on where they can review the application and how and when they can make representations to the Planning Inspectorate.
If the application is accepted, the Planning Inspectorate will appoint an independent inspector known as an Examining Authority to oversee the examination of the application, a process that is likely to start in the autumn. Anyone who makes a representation can register to become an Interested Party once the examination starts.
A “preliminary” meeting with Interested Parties, Drax and the Examining Authority will be held to coincide with the start of the examination process; this meeting will be held locally and interested parties will be given at least 21 days’ notice of the meeting. At this meeting, the Examining Authority will inform Drax and Interested Parties of the examination procedure and schedule going forward.
The post-application and examination processes, including the formal notification of the accepted application and the consultation on the Application documents (undertaken in accordance with Section 56 of the Planning Act 2008), are defined by relevant regulations and the Planning Inspectorate.
