Rule 6 Procedure for pre-inquiry and other meetings
The Secretary of State shall hold a pre-inquiry meeting.
The following provisions shall apply to the pre-inquiry meeting, or where there is more than one, to the first pre-inquiry meeting—
the Secretary of State shall send with the relevant notice—
notice of his intention to hold a pre-inquiry meeting;
a statement of the matters which, in his view, are the matters to be considered at the inquiry; and where another Minister of the Crown or a government department has expressed in writing to the Secretary of State a view which is mentioned in rule 4(2)(c), the Secretary of State shall set this out in his statement;
the Secretary of State shall send a copy of the statement described in the previous paragraph to the Minister or government department concerned;
the local planning authority shall publish by local advertisement a notice of the Secretary of State’s intention to hold a pre-inquiry meeting and of the statements sent in accordance with paragraph (2)(a)(ii) above; and
the applicant and the local planning authority shall ensure that within eight weeks of the starting date 2 copies of their outline statement have been received by the Secretary of State.
The Secretary of State shall, as soon as practicable after receipt, send a copy of the local planning authority’s outline statement to the applicant and copy of the applicant’s outline statement to the local planning authority.
Where rule 4(2) applies, the local planning authority shall—
include in their 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 they intend to rely in their submissions at the inquiry; and
within the period mentioned in paragraph (2)(d) send a copy of their outline statement to the person concerned.
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 send an outline statement to him, the applicant and the local planning authority and the person shall ensure that they are received by the Secretary of State, the applicant and the local planning authority within 4 weeks of the date of the Secretary of State’s written requirement.
The pre-inquiry meeting (or, where there is more than one, the first pre-inquiry meeting) shall be held within 16 weeks of the starting date.
The Secretary of State shall give not less than 3 weeks written notice of the pre-inquiry meeting to—
the applicant;
the local planning authority;
any person known at the date of the notice to be entitled to appear at the inquiry; and
any other person whose presence at the pre-inquiry meeting appears to him to be desirable;
and he may require the local planning authority to take, in relation to notification of the pre-inquiry meeting, one or more of the steps which he may under rule 12(6) require them to take in relation to notification of the inquiry.
The inspector—
shall preside at the pre-inquiry meeting;
shall determine the matters to be discussed and the procedure to be followed;
may require any person present at the pre-inquiry meeting who, in his 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 him to return or attend only on such conditions as he may specify.
The inspector may at any time hold such other meetings (including pre-inquiry meetings) as he considers necessary for the efficient and expeditious conduct of the inquiry and he shall arrange for such notice to be given of such meetings as appears to him necessary; and paragraph (8) shall apply to such meetings.
If the Secretary of State requests any further information from the applicant or the local planning authority at the pre-inquiry meeting, they shall ensure that 2 copies of it have been received by him and a copy has been received by any statutory party within 4 weeks of the conclusion of the pre-inquiry meeting and the Secretary of State shall, 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.