If planning consent has not been secured before Contract signature the first phase of the project after close will be dedicated to securing a Satisfactory Planning Permission. Although the Contract allocates responsibility for securing a Satisfactory Planning Permission to the Contractor the Authority will face a variety of challenges if planning is delayed. Hence the Contract Management Team should not assume the contractual provisions mean the Authority should have nothing to do with securing planning consents for the project facilities other than through its role as the Local Planning Authority (LPA).
As a Waste Disposal Authority the Authority is in the best position to undertake a number of activities that are useful in terms of increasing the probability of planning consent being granted by the LPA without undue delay. For example the LPA may have concerns about the need for the proposed treatment capacity within the Authority's boundaries independent of issues directly related to the exact location for the facility. This "need" argument can sometimes be dealt with by referring to the analysis undertaken by the Authority's project team in planning for its procurement24. More generally the knowledge within the Authority's team on planning issues and the relationship between the Authority's team and the LPA, which will normally be superior to the Contractor's, should be utilised for the benefit of the project.
Apart from the planning consent there may be other issues that need to be dealt with during the planning period because they have to be completed before the next stage i.e. the construction period, can commence. The principal issues will be making sure the site is available for construction to commence once planning has been secured and securing the environmental permit. These issues are also dealt with below.
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24 If the facility incorporates significant excess capacity for non-Local Authority waste the relevance of the Authority’s "need" case may be more limited.