Article 5 Procedure where Secretary of State causes pre-inquiry meeting to be held

The Secretary of State may cause a pre-inquiry meeting to be held if it appears to him desirable and where he does so the following provisions apply.

The Secretary of State shall serve with the relevant notice a notification of his intention to cause a pre-inquiry meeting to be held and a statement of the matters which appear to him to be likely to be relevant to his consideration of the application in question; and where another Minister of the Crown or a government department has expressed in writing to the Secretary of State a view that the application should not be granted either wholly or in part, or should be granted only subject to conditions, the Secretary of State shall set this out in his statement and shall supply a copy of the statement to the Minister or government department concerned.

The applicant shall cause to be published in a newspaper circulating in the locality in which the land is situated a notice of the Secretary of State’s intention to cause a pre-inquiry meeting to be held and of the statement served in accordance with paragraph (2).

The notice published pursuant to paragraph (3) shall refer to and include the text of any statement served in accordance with paragraph (2).

The relevant planning authority and the applicant shall, not later than 8 weeks after the relevant date, serve an outline statement on each other and on the Secretary of State.

The Secretary of State may in writing require any other person who has notified him of an intention or a wish to appear at the inquiry to serve, within 4 weeks of being so required, an outline statement on the Secretary of State, the applicant and the relevant planning authority.

The pre-inquiry meeting or, where there is more than one, the first meeting, shall be held not later than 16 weeks after the relevant date.

The Secretary of State shall give not less than 21 days' written notice of the pre-inquiry meeting to the relevant planning authority, the applicant, any person known at the date of the notice to be a person entitled to appear at the inquiry and any other person whose presence at the pre-inquiry meeting seems to him to be desirable; and he may require the applicant to take, in relation to notification of the pre-inquiry meeting, one or more steps which he may under rule 10 require him to take in relation to notification of the inquiry.

The inspector shall preside at the pre-inquiry meeting and shall determine the matters to be discussed and the procedure to be followed, and he may require any person present at the meeting who, in his opinion, is behaving in a disruptive manner to leave it and he may refuse to permit that person to return or to attend any further pre-inquiry meeting, or may permit him to return or to attend only on such conditions as he may specify.