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Advice to Teresa Hubery

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Enquiry

From
Teresa Hubery
Date advice given
4 August 2011
Enquiry type
Email

IPC received an email enquiry in regard to interested parties for the North Doncaster Rail Chord, in particular the role of the Local Authority in making representations during the examination stage as well as submitting a Local Impact Report.

Advice given

IPC provided the following advice.

DMBC are automatically an interested party (as a local authority) by virtue of s102(6) of the Planning Act 2008 (PA 2008) since the proposed project is (wholly) in the authority's area. For the purposes of s.102(8)(a) DMBC are a 'district council'.

Whilst local planning authorities have specific functions and powers under the PA 2008 in relation to enforcement (see part 8), for the purposes of making representations during examination and submitting any Local Impact Report (LIR) these should be made by the local authority as a body corporate rather than by individual statutory functional elements of that authority. Whether any such representations or LIR have to be authorised by a particular Committee, Cabinet Member or Officer would depend on the Constitution and the scheme of delegation of the local authority concerned.

The relevant local highway authority would also automatically be an interested party, as a "statutory party", by virtue of s102(1)(b) and 102(3) of the PA 2008. It should be noted that the circumstances in which the relevant local highway authority must be notified about an application are "All applications likely to have an impact on the road network or the volume of traffic in the vicinity of the proposal". This 'circumstances test' would, we think, be a relevant consideration in determining whether any representations should properly be made by the local authority as a body corporate or by the relevant local highway authority.

Although certain powers and responsibilities in relation to rights of way are functions of local highway authorities, the 'circumstances test' referred to above would not be met by rights of way such as footpaths since they are not part of the road network and cannot be used by traffic. However, highway authorities also have certain powers and responsibilities in relation to byways open to all traffic. In relation to these, the 'circumstances test' referred to above may well be met.

In view of this, any representations made in relation to rights of way could either be included in the local authority's or the local highway authority's representations depending on the particular type of right of way to which to that representation relates. This may also have implications for which particular Committee, Cabinet Member or Officer would be empowered to authorise the making of any such representation under the Council's Constitution and the scheme of delegation.