At Step 4B, when the sponsor submits its final airspace change proposal to the CAA, a 21 day period begins when anyone can make a request that the final decision is made by the Secretary of State for Transport (SoS) instead of the CAA.
This is like the process used in the land planning system for managing significant planning applications. Only the more significant changes can be ‘called in’ in this way, and even if a proposal meets the criteria to be called-in, the Secretary of State does not have to call it in.
For a proposal to be called in by the SoS, they must decide that it meets one of the following criteria:
- It is of strategic national importance
- It could have a significant impact (positive or negative) on the economic growth of the UK
- It could both lead to a change in noise distribution resulting in a 10,000 net increase in the number of people subjected to a noise level of at least 54 dB LAeq 16hr and have an identified adverse impact on health and quality of life
We will ask members of the public to specify and provide supporting evidence on which criteria they believe the proposal meets when they make a request for it to be called in by the SoS.
You can find more information about call-in by following this link to the Department for Transport’s guidance.