If a developer wishes to submit a revised Environmental Statement for a Sustainable Urban Extension of some 800 houses (having already submitted a previous ES for the outline application), is the LPA required to hold the application in abeyance until the revised ES is submitted? Why a revised ES is needed is unknown - presumably because the original was defective and/or the LPA has asked for additional information on it. The PAS Guidance on "Dealing with major planning applications:handling environmental impact and habitat regulations issues" certainly implies this where it says "Where an Environmental Statement has not been submitted with a planning application but the applicant indicates that they propose to provide one, you should suspend consideration of the application until the Environmental Statement has been received." However, this Guidance appears to have been issued prior to the 2017 EIA Regulations, although the advice seems to me to be still good. Any thoughts please anyone?
P.S. I should add that the outline application was originally submitted in Feb 2015 prior to adoption of the LP (now being reviewed). Since originally posting a colleague has made the point that it may be that the developer is doing no more than bring the ES up to date because of the length of time that has passed, so the LPA has a current document at determination time. But I remain concerned that discussions are taking place without the new ES being seen. It does seem to fly in the face of an ES being an 'up front' application document.
