145: meet the Infrastructure Planning Commissioners

This is entry number 145, first published on 2 July 2010, of a blog on the implementation of the Planning Act 2008. Click here for a link to the whole blog. If you would like to be notified when the blog is updated, with links sent by email, click here.

Today’s entry introduces the commissioners of the Infrastructure Planning Commission.

Although the demise of the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) was announced this week, it will actually survive until at least autumn 2011.  Until then, commissioners will play a key role in examining applications, and once National Policy Statements are finalised, deciding them.  They are also already involved in pre-application stages - see below.  It is therefore well worth getting to know them in a blog entry. 

The full set of 39 commissioners has now been appointed to the  IPC.  This just falls short of the number of projects that the IPC currently expects to receive, which has recently increased to 42, so they could have about one each to deal with.

The full list of commissioners, with a link to the IPC biography of each (and photo of most of them - they seem to have had a photo session this week), is as follows.  The first nine are full-time, the remainder are appointed ad hoc to consider particular applications.

Sir Michael Pitt, Chair
Dr Pauleen Lane CBE, Deputy Chair
Robert Upton CBE, Deputy Chair
Gideon Amos OBE
Jan Bessell
Katharine Bryan
Paul Hudson
Emrys Parry
Glyn Roberts
Kate Barker CBE
Dr Colin Barnes
Robert Baty OBE
Martin Broderick
Peter Bucks
Jim Claydon
Annie Coombs
Richard Davies
Frances Fernandes
Libby Gawith
Simon Gibbs
Professor John Glasson
Jonathan Green
Michael Hayes CBE
Eira Hughes
Professor Gordon Hughes
Michael Hurley
John Lloyd Jones OBE
Kelvin MacDonald
Bob Macey
Vincent Maher
Dr Barry Pearce
Andrew Phillipson
Iwan Richards
Peter Robottom
Professor Austin Smyth
Professor Riki Therivel
Bill Wadrup
Lorna Walker
Dr Peter Widd

Glancing through the biographies, about half of the 10 women and 29 men are planners by training and there are a fair number of economists.  The sectors that the IPC will cover are all represented, although there seem to be most specialists in the waste and water sectors, then energy, then transport.  Quite a number are either academics or combine jobs in industry or the public sector with academia.  Seven are current or past planning inspectors at the Planning Inspectorate, to which they may return if they join the proposed Major Infrastructure Planning Unit that is to replace the IPC.  Kate Barker and Michael Hayes both worked on the review of the planning system that led to the Planning Act 2008.

In May, Sir Mike Pitt gave the commissioners a second role in addition to their statutory one.  He announced that a commissioner would be appointed to assist in the pre-application stage for each project, although this is not a requirement of the Planning Act.  Once the application was made, that commissioner would step aside and a new commissioner, or panel of three or more commissioners, would be appointed to examine it.  At least some of the commissioners are therefore already involved in the projects that have started their pre-application stages.

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