To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will institute procedures to ensure that in future in the event of any planning inquiry resulting from a call-in of a planning application where it is known or believed that both the applicant and the local planning authority are in support of the application, leading objectors to the application are given informal or formal notice of the date of the inquiry no later than the applicant and the local authority.

[holding answer 25 January 1991]: It is normal practice to give official written notification of the date for an inquiry into a called-in planning application to all interested parties at the same time. It is necessary, though, to contact the applicant and the local planning authority beforehand in order to agree a date and venue for the inquiry. My right hon. Friend has no plans to alter these arrangements.