WIDP recognises that the planning environment for procurements will vary quite substantially. It has therefore endeavoured to adopt, through the use of the PHF and the advice of the WIDP Scrutiny Team, an approach which provides for a degree of flexibility when determining whether a project's planning health is sufficiently mature so that the OBC may be endorsed.
At the same time, however, there are requirements that all procurements as a minimum will need to comply with at OBC stage. These minimum requirements are:
• Sites or options over such sites to be acquired. In some circumstances a sufficiently certain programme to acquire sites (i.e., draft heads of terms and price have been agreed) may be acceptable; and
• Environmental and ground condition studies to be complete (desktop and others) other than perhaps base-line studies, in relation to which the expectation would be that these are well progressed. Information from such studies should be warranted in favour of the bidders.
In addition to the above minimum OBC requirements, the WIDP Scrutiny Team will be required to endorse the Authority's overall planning strategy.
WIDP
August 2007
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs