# The Town and Country Planning (Hearings and Inquiries Procedures) (England) (Amendment) Rules 2009, Note: Explanatory note

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

(This note is not part of the Rules)
These Rules amend the Town and Country Planning (Hearings Procedure) (England) Rules 2000 (“the Hearings Rules”), the Town and Country Planning Appeals (Determination by Inspectors) (Inquiries Procedure) (England) Rules 2000, the Town and Country Planning (Inquiries Procedure) (England) Rules 2000 (referred to in this note together as “the Inquiries Rules”) and the Town and Country Planning (Major Infrastructure Project Inquiries Procedure) (England) Rules 2005.
The amendments make changes to the procedures in the Hearings and Inquiries Rules and clarificatory amendments to all of the Rules referred to above.
In the Hearings and Inquiries Rules amendments have been made to the definition of starting date. Starting date now means the date of the notice given by the Secretary of State setting out the procedure under which the appeal or application is to be considered. Rules imposing a new requirement on the Secretary of State to send such a notice and consequential amendments to these changes have been made (rule 2(2) to (4)(a), and (12)(a), rule 3(2) to (4)(a) and (12)(a), and rule 4(2) to (4)(a) and (11)(a).
In the Hearings and Inquiries Rules the right of the appellant, the local planning authority and any other person who sends a statement of case in accordance with these Rules, to comment on another person’s statement of case within 9 weeks of the starting date, has been removed. Consequential amendments have also been made (rule 2(6) and (12)(b), rule 3(6)(d) to (f), (8), and (12)(b), and rule 4(5)(d) to (f), (10) and (11)(b)).
In the Inquiries Rules amendments have been made to bring forward the date for sending the statement of common ground to the Secretary of State (rule 3(9) and rule 4(7)).
All of the Rules listed above have been amended to ensure that where notification is given it must be given in writing (rule 2(4)(b), (5), (7)(b) and (c), (10) and (11), rule 3(4)(b), (5), (7) and (11), rule 4(4)(b), (6) and (9), and rule 5(2) and (3)).
In the Hearings Rules, the method of procedure has been amended to take into account the new power of the Secretary of State to determine the appeal procedure under section 319A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (rule 2(7)(a), (8), (9) and (12)(c)).
Other clarificatory amendments have been made by rule 3(6)(a) to (c) and (10) and rule 4(5)(a) and (c) and (8).
An impact assessment has been prepared in relation to these Rules. This assessment has been placed in the Library of each House of Parliament and copies may be obtained from PSID, Department for Communities and Local Government, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London, SW1E 5DU (telephone 020 7944 4817).

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/455/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/town-and-country-planning-hearings-and-inquiries-procedures-england-amendment-rules-2009/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.