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Documents required by the Planning Inspectorate: please read the guidance notes before completing the checklist

Updated 18 September 2024

Applies to England

Note 1 – Service of Notice

Please ensure your Council has identified and served notice of the making of the Order on all owners of land affected by the route(s) covered in the Order. Names of all the landowners should be provided to the Inspectorate. If your Council has not served notice on all affected landowners, you will need to do so now, and give the landowner(s) the appropriate period of time in which to submit any representations to your office (42 days for definitive map modification cases and 28 days for public path orders).

Note 2 – Landownership

If your Council has been unable to identify ownership of all land affected by the Order, you should seek a direction from the Secretary of State under either paragraph 3(4) of Schedule 15 to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, paragraph 1(6) of Schedule 14 to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, or paragraph 1(3C) of Schedule 6 to the Highways Act 1980, that it will not be necessary for your Council to serve notice on the owners and occupiers of the land over which the Order route(s) run(s).

The Rights of Way Team at the Planning Inspectorate should be contacted with any such requests in advance of the Order being submitted to the Secretary of State. In making a request for dispensation, you should provide details of the steps taken to identify land ownership (such as Land Registry searches, notices placed on site etc).

It is not our policy to commence a procedure to determine an order until such steps to identify and notify all landowners (or dispensation granted) has been completed.

Note 3 – Electronic submissions

Except for the original sealed orders, the Planning Inspectorate actively encourages authorities to make submissions electronically. To do so, please observe the following rules:

• The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 requires that all public sector websites must make all their content accessible within reason. Please visit the Government Data Services (GDS) webpage for more information. The guidance that accompanies the regulations advises that the only acceptable formats for publishing documents are HTML or Open Document Format (ODF), please submit documents in these formats wherever possible, this applies most importantly to copies of sealed orders and notices.
• Only submit the documents that are requested in the checklist. The completed checklist should be submitted with the documents (the numbering should correspond with the submitted documents).
• Sealed orders should be forwarded to us at same time as the electronic submission. Please ensure the covering letter makes it clear that the submission is either being made electronically only or electronically and by post.
• Please do not submit redacted documents (User Evidence Forms, Objection Letters etc.) If a party raises a request to not have their information shared, PINS will action the request accordingly.
• Use of artificial intelligence (AI) in casework evidence - If you use AI to create or alter any part of your documents, information or data, you should tell us that you have done this when you provide the material to us. See the detailed guidance for further information.
• Submissions are to be forwarded to rightsofway2@planninginspectorate.gov.uk.
• Do not try to put all the documents in one email, currently 15mb is safely transmitted. Send the documents over several emails. Number the emails ‘1 of 4’, ‘2 of 4’ etc.
• Each document should be separately numbered and titled as per the checklist. For example, ’01 Copy of Order’, ’02 Order Plan’, ’03 Submission letter’, ’04 Statement of reasons’ etc.
• User evidence forms should be scanned as one document not separately.
• If using a ‘drop box’ please ensure that they are labelled accordingly. Each document should be separately numbered and titled as per the checklist. For example, ’01 Copy of Order’, ’02 Order Plan’, ’03 Submission letter’, ’04 Statement of reasons’ etc.
• NB. If the documents are not submitted in the correct format, they will be returned to you.

If you have any queries about electronic submission, please email rightsofway2@planninginspectorate.gov.uk

The Planning Inspectorate,
DEFRA Team,
Rights of Way Section,
Room 3A Eagle,
Temple Quay House,
2 The Square,
Temple Quay,
Bristol, BS1 6PN

Note 4 – Notified Parties

It would be helpful if notified party details could be forwarded to us in table format with email addresses provided for each party:

Name of Person
Organisation
1st line of Address
2nd line of Address
3rd line of Address
4th line of Address
Postcode
Email address

Note 5 – Not supporting the order

If you do not intend to support the order or decide to take a neutral stance when an Inquiry or Hearing is held, then please indicate this in the checklist below rather than wait until the inquiry or hearing is about to take place. This will prevent delays or the postponement of the Inquiry/Hearing, causing everyone to incur unnecessary extra expense.