I think the interesting point here, and apologies for going first, guys, is that we've got an hour to talk about the general process here, and we could probably have a day where we talked just on this one issue. I think that's a critical point.
Perhaps just as an introduction to the chat, my personal experience—so I'm currently the operational manager for strategic development and placemaking in Cardiff, but I've previously been responsible for development management as a whole in Neath Port Talbot, and, before that, in the Vale of Glamorgan. When I was in Neath Port Talbot, as an authority, we dealt with two large NSIPs, one of which was the tidal power lagoon, another one that was a power station for Tata Steel, and we dealt with numerous developments of national significance in terms of windfarms and slightly smaller matters, so I think I've got quite a lot of good experience in terms of understanding what the actual implications of the current regime are.
With respect to those who introduced it and have perhaps considered it, I strongly feel, and this is my personal opinion—. I don't think the DNS regime has worked well, not necessarily in terms of the delivery of the infrastructure consents itself, but in terms of the impact on local planning authorities and that failure to actually recognise that right from the start, or, indeed, to listen to local planning authorities for the last eight plus years about those impacts. So, I think it was introduced without a true understanding of those resource implications.
We as LPAs continue to do so much of the actual legwork behind these DNS applications, and the NSIPs as well, which is a lot for those people dealing with this process. We get questions, we have to raise—you know, we have to do the communication, we have to do the LIRs, we have to pull everything together. We have to fully engage in that process at pre-application, and yet we might, if we're lucky, get—[Inaudible.]—for pre-application, which barely scratches the surface of anything, £7,700 for a local impact report, only if we're good boys and girls and actually get a response in five weeks, which is very, very difficult. Local impact reports—I've done a number of them, and I actually see their purpose, but I think that, when it was introduced, it was like—. And I actually had a chat with a member training when we got the chief inspectorate of planning coming in that, 'All you have to do is local impact reports.' But it is so much more than that.
The whole point of the planning process as a whole, the major themes—as I'm sure the committee appreciate—the major themes for the town and country planning application process underpin the whole planning authority service from front to end, which includes all the—[Inaudible.]—side, which includes all of the non-statutory stuff, it includes all the way through to consenting and discharge of requirements and conditions, enforcement, the works. With respect, again, and I'll let colleagues come in and then we'll have this debate, I actually strongly feel that the research that underpins the regulatory impact assessment and identifies the costs involved—. Being honest—personal opinion again—I think it's fatally flawed. I don't think it barely comprehends the impact. I don't think it was at all clear that research was undertaken with the full context of what it was trying to inform. I think not enough response came in, and I think it was very tightly formed in terms of what kind of costs involved in doing local impact reports without actually thinking about the whole process.