Citation and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (Planning Appeals) Regulations 1997, and shall come into force on 8th April 1997.

Interpretation and notices, etc.

2.-(1) In these Regulations:

"the Act" means the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996, and "Schedule 6" means Schedule 6 to the Act;

"the appellant" means the nominated undertaker;

"approval" means approval under Part II or III of Schedule 6;

"authority" means relevant local authority for the purposes of paragraph 1 of Schedule 6;

"request" means a request for approval under the planning permission deemed to be granted by section 9(1) of the Act;

"starting date" means the third working day after the date of receipt by the appropriate Ministers of an appeal, and "working day" means any day which is not a Saturday or Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday in England and Wales under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971(2).; and

"third party" means any person who has been notified or consulted in accordance with Schedule 6 about a request, or has submitted representations to the authority about that request.

(2) Any notice, statement or representations submitted pursuant to these Regulations shall be in writing.

(3) Where-

(a)any notice of appeal is given under paragraph 32 of Schedule 6;

(b)any notice is served pursuant to regulation 6(1);

(c)any questionnaire or statement is submitted or copied pursuant to regulation 7; or

(d)any representations are submitted or copied pursuant to regulation 6, 8 or 9-

and reference is made therein to another document, a copy of that other document (or of the relevant part of it) shall be submitted, served or copied (as the case may be) in a like manner and within the period specified for the submission, service or copying of the relevant document mentioned in sub-paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d) above.

Application

3. These Regulations shall apply to any appeal which is made under paragraph 32 of Schedule 6, and which is not the subject of a direction made pursuant to paragraph 36(1) of that Schedule.

Notice of appeal

4.-(1) Notice of appeal to the appropriate Ministers shall be given in the form prescribed at Form A in the Schedule hereto(3).

(2) The appellant shall forthwith send a copy of the notice of appeal to the authority.

Notice of receipt of appeal

5. The appropriate Ministers shall upon receipt of the notice of appeal forthwith serve notice on the appellant and the authority of-

(a)the starting date;

(b)the reference number allocated to the appeal;

(c)the address of the site to which the appeal relates.

Notice to, and representations by third parties

6.-(1) The authority shall, within a period of 7 days beginning with the date on which it receives notice pursuant to regulation 5, serve notice on all third parties informing them of the appeal.

(2) A notice under paragraph (1) shall-

(a)summarise the request to which the appeal relates, and the grounds of the appeal;

(b)contain the information specified in regulation 5;

(c)inform the third party that that party may, within a period of 21 days beginning with the starting date, submit representations to the appropriate Ministers in respect of the appeal;

(d)give the address to which any such representations are to be sent;

(e)state that the appropriate Ministers will copy those representations to the appellant and to the authority;

(f)state that copies of any representations already submitted to the authority about the request (other than representations which were not taken into account because the maker requested they be treated as confidential) will be sent by the authority to the appropriate Ministers and the appellant.

(3) Any representations submitted pursuant to paragraph (2)(c) and any copies of representations mentioned in paragraph (2)(f) shall be submitted to the appropriate Ministers within a period of 21 days beginning with the starting date.

(4) An authority submitting a copy of representations to the appropriate Ministers pursuant to paragraph (2)(f) shall forthwith send a copy to the appellant.

(5) The appropriate Ministers shall, on receipt of representations made pursuant to paragraph (2)(c), forthwith send a copy of them to the appellant and to the authority.

Submission of questionnaire and statement by the authority

7.-(1) The authority shall, within a period of 14 days beginning with the starting date, submit to the appropriate Ministers a completed questionnaire in the form prescribed at Form B in the Schedule hereto.

(2) The authority shall forthwith send a copy of that questionnaire to the appellant.

(3) If the authority wishes to submit a statement in addition to the questionnaire mentioned in paragraph (1), it shall:

(a)within a period of 14 days beginning with the starting date, serve notice on the appropriate Ministers and on the appellant of its intention to submit such a statement; and

(b)within a period of 21 days beginning with the starting date, submit the statement to the appropriate Ministers, forthwith sending a copy of it to the appellant.

Representations by the appellant and by the authority

8.-(1) The appellant may submit to the appropriate Ministers representations in response to:

(a)the authority's questionnaire copied to it pursuant to regulation 7(2); and

(b)the authority's statement (if any) copied to it pursuant to regulation 7(3)(b).

(2) Representations pursuant to paragraph (1)(a) shall be submitted within a period of 7 days beginning with the date of receipt by the appellant of the copy of the authority's questionnaire, and those pursuant to paragraph (1)(b) within a period of 7 days beginning with the date of receipt by the appellant of the copy of the authority's statement.

(3) Where representations are submitted pursuant to paragraph (1), the appellant shall forthwith send a copy of them to the authority.

(4) The appellant and the authority may submit to the appropriate Ministers representations in response to any third party representations submitted to those Ministers pursuant to regulation 6(2)(c).

(5) Representations pursuant to paragraph (4) shall be submitted within a period of 7 days beginning with the date of the receipt by the appellant or the authority (as the case may be) of the copy of the third party representations sent pursuant to regulation 6(5).

Closing representations in respect of new matters

9. Where the appellant submits representations pursuant to regulation 8(1), and those representations raise a new matter, the authority may, within a period of 7 days beginning with the date of its receipt of a copy of those representations pursuant to regulation 8(3), submit to the appropriate Ministers representations in respect of that new matter, copying them forthwith to the appellant.

Powers of determiner

10.-(1) In this regulation-

"the determiner" means the appropriate Ministers or the person appointed to determine the appeal pursuant to paragraph 34 of Schedule 6, as the case may be; and

"representations" includes any statement or questionnaire submitted or to be submitted by the authority pursuant to these Regulations.

(2) The determiner may, at any time after the expiry of:

(a)a period of 7 days beginning either with the date of receipt by the appellant of the copy of the authority's questionnaire or, where the authority submits a statement pursuant to regulation 7(3), with the date of receipt by the appellant of the copy of that statement; or

(b)where applicable, the period of 7 days mentioned in regulation 9-

whichever is the later proceed to a decision, taking into account only those representations and supporting documents as were submitted before the expiry of the relevant period.

(3) Where no representations are submitted within the period mentioned in regulation 6(2)(c), the determiner may proceed to a decision if-

(a)it appears to the determiner that sufficient material has been received to enable the determiner to reach a decision on the merits of the case; and

(b)notice has been given by the determiner to the appellant and to the authority of the determiner's intention to proceed to a decision notwithstanding that no representations have been submitted within that period.

SCHEDULEPRESCRIBED FORMS

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

The Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996 (c. 61) makes provision for the nominated undertaker to make requests for planning approval to relevant local authorities. Schedule 6 to that Act provides that the nominated undertaker may appeal to the Secretaries of State for the Environment and for Transport in certain circumstances against the decision of such an authority.

These Regulations prescribe the form of notice of appeal (regulation 4).

The Regulations prescribe a form of a questionnaire to be submitted by the authority (regulation 7). They also provide for notice of the appeal to be served on the authority and on relevant third parties (regulations 5 and 6 respectively), and specify time limits for the submission of representations and any supporting documents (regulations 6 to 9). Regulation 10 provides for the determination of the appeal to proceed taking account only of material submitted within the relevant time limit, and also enables determination to proceed in the absence of representations where that time limit has expired.