# The Town and Country Planning (Enforcement) (Written Representations Procedure) (Wales) Regulations 2003, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Regulations)
Section 174 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 39 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 and that section as applied by section 74(3) of that Act, confer a right of appeal against an enforcement notice, a listed building enforcement notice and a conservation area enforcement notice, respectively, on a person having an interest in the land to which the enforcement notice relates or who is a relevant occupier.
An appellant and the local planning authority are entitled in any appeal proceedings to appear before and be heard by a person appointed by the National Assembly for Wales (“the National Assembly”) but they may agree to the appeal being determined on the basis of written representations and supporting documents.
These Regulations lay down the procedure and time limits in connection with appeals against enforcement notices which are to be disposed of on the basis of written representations.
The main steps in the procedure are -
(a) upon receipt of a notice of appeal, the National Assembly will inform the appellant and the local planning authority of the starting date, the appeal reference number, the address to which written representations may be sent and the grounds on which the appeal is brought (regulation 4);
(b) the local planning authority must, within 2 weeks of the starting date, notify interested parties of the appeal (regulation 5), and must send a completed questionnaire and any documents referred to in it to the National Assembly (regulation 6);
(c) the local planning authority may elect to treat the questionnaire, documents sent with it, and the statement provided under regulation 8 of the Town and Country Planning (Enforcement Notices and Appeals) (Wales) Regulations 2003, as their written representations, but where they do not so elect they have 6 weeks from the starting date to send written representations to the National Assembly (regulation 7);
(d) the appellant’s representations are the notice of appeal, documents accompanying it and any statement sent under regulation 5 of the Town and Country Planning (Enforcement Notices and Appeals) (Wales) Regulations 2003, however they may send further representations within 6 weeks of the starting date to the National Assembly (regulation 7);
(e) the appellant and local planning authority have 9 weeks from the starting date to send to the National Assembly representations on each others' representations (regulation 7);
(f) an interested party, notified under regulation 5 of these Regulations, has 6 weeks from the starting date to send representations to the National Assembly (regulation 8); and
(g) the National Assembly is given power to disregard written representations not received within the relevant time limit and it may proceed to a decision without receiving any written representations within the time limits after giving notice to the appellant and local planning authority of its intention to do so (regulation 10).
Regulation 11 authorises documents, which are sent in accordance with these Regulations, to be sent by means of electronic communication.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2003/395/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/town-and-country-planning-enforcement-written-representations-procedure-wales-regulations-2003/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.