Statement of Community Involvement

Consultation on Statement of Community Involvement for Norfolk County Council

Thank you for your consultation on the above dated 28 June 2018 which was received by Natural England on 28 June 2018.

Natural England is a non-departmental public body. Our statutory purpose is to ensure that the natural environment is conserved, enhanced, and managed for the benefit of present and future generations, thereby contributing to sustainable development.

We are supportive of the principle of meaningful and early engagement of the general community, community organisations and statutory bodies in local planning matters, both in terms of shaping policy and participating in the process of determining planning applications.

We regret we are unable to comment, in detail, on individual Statements of Community Involvement but information on the planning service we offer, including advice on how to consult us, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/protected-species-and-sites-how-to-review-planning-proposals.

We now ask that all planning consultations are sent electronically to the central hub for our planning and development advisory service at the following address: consultations@naturalengland.org.uk. This system enables us to deliver the most efficient and effective service to our customers.

Draft Statement of Community Involvement for Norfolk County Council, May 2018

Thank you for consulting Historic England on the Draft Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) for Norfolk County Council, May 2018. As the Government's adviser on the historic environment Historic England is keen to ensure that the protection of the historic environment is fully taken into account at all stages and levels of the local planning process.

This consultation deals with the Council's updated approach to public consultation for planning policies and planning applications. These requirements are set out in legislation in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (as amended by the Localism Act 2011), Town and Country Planning (Local Development) England Regulations 2004, the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 and the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012 (as amended).

We support the general aims and approach to the draft Statement of Community Involvement. We welcome the acknowledgement of Historic England as a specific consultation body with respect to Local Plans at Appendix 1, page 16 as well as with regard to planning applications at Appendix 3, page 20. We request that reference is also made to Historic England as a statutory consultee under duty to co-within the SCI.

With regards to neighbourhood planning, we note that the first point of contact are the district/borough councils.

We would welcome consultation at an informal level, in addition to the requirements of the legislation, where issues may benefit from our early involvement. For information and for further consultation please note our new consultation email addresses for the East of England:

Planning Policy: eastplanningpolicy@HistoricEngland.org.uk <mailto:eastplanningpolicy@HistoricEngland.org.uk>

Planning Applications (Development Management): e-east@HistoricEngland.org.uk <mailto:e-east@HistoricEngland.org.uk>

We hope that the above comments are of assistance. If you would like any clarification or would like to discuss the above please do not hesitate to contact me.

Norfolk Minerals and Waste Local Plan Review: Statement of Community
Involvement consultation
Thank you for your consultation on the above site, received on 28 June 2018.
I can confirm that the County Council as Lead Local Flood Authority has no opinion on how the community is consulted on the Plan and has no comments to make.

It is commendable that there is a Statement of Community Involvement in place, however it is not clear what to do when such statement is not adhered to? The communication with the community on SIL 02 - Silica Sand at Shouldham and Marham has clearly failed, as the residents only found out a few days before the 13.08.2018 deadline, despite the plans being in development since 2015. The residents did not have sufficient time to review the documents and prepare objections, and there is no effective mechanism to raise concerns about the process.

Norfolk Minerals & Waste Plan Review Initial Consultation & SCI Consultation

Thank you for informing the Council of the above consultations. I have no comments to make on the documents at this stage. I would be grateful is you would keep us informed of the next consultation stages as they progress.