Article 5 Procedure where the National Assembly causes a pre-inquiry meeting to be held
The National Assembly must hold a pre-inquiry meeting—
if it expects an inquiry to last for 8 days or more, unless it considers it is unnecessary;
in respect of shorter inquiries, if it appears to it to be necessary.
Where the National Assembly holds a pre-inquiry meeting the following provisions apply—
the National Assembly must send with the relevant notice—
notice of its intention to hold a pre-inquiry meeting;
a statement of the matters about which it particularly wishes to be informed for the purposes of its consideration of the application or appeal in question and, where a Minister of the Crown or a government department has expressed in writing to the National Assembly a view which is mentioned in rule 4(2)(b), the National Assembly must set this out in its statement;
the National Assembly must send a copy of its statement described in the previous paragraph to the Minister or government department concerned;
the local planning authority must publish in a newspaper circulating in the locality in which the land is situated a notice of the National Assembly’s intention to hold a pre-inquiry meeting and of the statement sent in accordance with paragraph (2)(a)(ii) above; and
the applicant and the local planning authority must ensure that within 8 weeks of the starting date 2 copies of their outline statements have been received by the National Assembly.
The National Assembly must, as soon as practicable after receipt, send a copy of the local planning authority’s outline statement to the applicant and a copy of the applicant’s outline statement to the local planning authority.
Where rule 4(2) applies, the local planning authority must—
include in its outline statement—
the terms of any direction given together with a statement of the reasons for it; and
any view expressed or representation made on which it intends to rely in its submissions at the inquiry; and
within the period mentioned in paragraph (2)(d), send a copy of its outline statement to the person concerned.
The National Assembly may in writing require any other person who has notified it of an intention or a wish to take part in the inquiry to send an outline statement to it, to the applicant and to the local planning authority and that person must ensure that the statements are received by the National Assembly, the applicant and the local planning authority within 4 weeks of the date of the National Assembly’s written requirement.
The pre-inquiry meeting (or, where there is more than one, the first pre-inquiry meeting) must be held within 16 weeks of the starting date.
The National Assembly must give not less than 3 weeks' written notice of the pre-inquiry meeting to—
the applicant;
the local planning authority;
any statutory party; and
any other person whose presence at the pre-inquiry meeting appears to it to be desirable,
and the National Assembly may require the local planning authority to take, in relation to notification of the pre-inquiry meeting, one or more of the steps which the National Assembly may under rule 10(6) require the local planning authority to take in relation to notification of the inquiry.
The inspector—
is to preside at the pre-inquiry meeting;
is to determine the matters to be discussed and the procedure to be followed;
may require any person present at the pre-inquiry meeting who, in the inspector’s opinion, is behaving in a disruptive manner to leave; and
may refuse to permit that person to return or to attend any further pre-inquiry meeting, or may permit that person to return or attend only on such conditions as the inspector may specify.
Where a pre-inquiry meeting has been held pursuant to paragraph (1), the inspector may hold a further pre-inquiry meeting and must arrange for such notice to be given of a further pre-inquiry meeting as appears necessary; and paragraph (8) applies to such a pre-inquiry meeting.
If the National Assembly requests any further information from the applicant or the local planning authority at the pre-inquiry meeting, the applicant or the local planning authority, as the case may be, must ensure that 2 copies of the information requested are received by the National Assembly, and a copy is received by any statutory party, within 4 weeks of the conclusion of the pre-inquiry meeting and the National Assembly must, as soon as practicable after receipt, send a copy of the further information received from the applicant to the local planning authority and a copy of the further information received from the local planning authority to the applicant.