Governing by planning inquiry

Inquiries into whether planning permission, or something like it, should be given for a development proposal are examined. The aspect considered is the role that they play in deciding how we are governed by central government: how far central government policy is to be debated on its merits at such inquiries, how far inspectors who preside over them should go in making recommendations on which government policy should be, and how suitable such inquiries are for debate. Two inquiries within the UK nuclear industry are used as examples. The first is the Windscale Inquiry held in 1977 on a proposal by British Nuclear Fuels Limited to construct a fuel reprocessing plant. The second is the inquiry which arose out of the application by the Central Electricity Generating Board to construct a pressurized water reactor power station, Sizewell B. (author)