That's the problem the IPC was meant to solve - to remove overdue local influence from schemes of national importance. Of course the Coalition reversed that immediately as soon as they took office and championed localism - and that meant that nationally important schemes are now held up as political footballs
Sadly, the Coalition were too naive and inexperienced to be able to see the outcome of that reversal - despite the fact the IPC had been brought in as a result of experience within the planning system, with most parties with experience knowing that the planning system was not good at dealing with very large scale projects of national importance, but which have a large effect on a local area.