Section 68: Planning authority functions under National Parks legislation etc., Environment Act 1995

Where a National Park authority is the local planning authority for any National Park, section 184 of the 1972 Act and paragraph 37 of Schedule 17 to that Act (functions under certain legislation relating to the National Parks and the countryside) shall not apply as respects that Park in relation to any of the functions conferred by or under—

the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 ("the 1949 Act"), or

the Countryside Act 1968 ("the 1968 Act"),

on a planning authority of any description.

In consequence of subsection (1) above, but subject to subsections (3) to (7) below—

functions which are conferred on a local planning authority by or under the 1949 Act or the 1968 Act, and the functions conferred on a county planning authority (or, in relation to Wales, a local planning authority) by section 69 of the 1949 Act (suspension of access to avoid risk of fire), shall, as respects the whole or any part of a National Park for which a National Park authority is the local planning authority, be functions of that authority and not of any other authority;

references in those Acts to a local planning authority whose area consists of or includes the whole or any part of a National Park shall be construed, in relation to any National Park for which a National Park authority is the local planning authority, as references to the National Park authority; and

other references in those Acts to a local planning authority and the references to a local authority in section 103 of the 1949 Act and sections 10 and 43 to 45 of the 1968 Act (which contain provision applying in relation to local authorities in their capacity as local planning authorities) shall have effect accordingly.

Section 11 of the 1949 Act (which makes provision in relation to a local planning authority that corresponds to provision made by section 65 above in relation to a National Park authority) shall not apply in relation to any National Park authority.

The functions conferred by or under section 12 of the 1949 Act or section 12 of the 1968 Act (facilities for National Parks) which are exercisable by virtue of this section by a National Park authority in a National Park—

shall be exercisable by that authority outside the relevant Park on any land in the neighbourhood of that Park; but

shall be so exercisable only under arrangements made with the local planning authority for the area where they are exercised.

Sections 61 to 63 of the 1949 Act (survey of access requirements and action in response to the survey) shall have effect in accordance with subsection (2) above as respects the area of any National Park for which a National Park authority has become the local planning authority—

in the case of a Park designated after the commencement of this section, as if section 61(1) applied with the substitution for the reference to the commencement of that Act of a reference to the time when that authority became the local planning authority for that Park;

as if no area were required by virtue of subsection (3) of section 61 of that Act, or of any previous review under that section, to be excluded from any area to be reviewed by virtue of paragraph (a) above; and

in the case of a Park designated before the commencement of this section, as if—

the power (if any) to make a resolution for the purposes of the proviso to that subsection (3) as respects any part of the area of the Park which has not previously been reviewed under that section, and

the functions which, where such a resolution has been so made, are conferred on the authority which made it or on any authority which has conducted a review in pursuance of the resolution,

were a power or, as the case may be, functions of the National Park authority, and not of any other authority.

The following functions, so far as exercisable by a National Park authority in relation to land or countryside in a National Park in England for which that authority is the local planning authority, that is to say—

those conferred by or under section 89 of the 1949 Act (planting of trees and treatment of derelict land), and

those conferred by section 10 of the 1968 Act (camping and picnic sites),

shall be exercisable in relation to so much of that Park as is comprised in a district for which there is a district council, concurrently with the National Park authority, by that district council.

For the purposes of any enactment relating to the functions of a district planning authority, the functions of a district council by virtue of subsection (6) above shall be deemed to be conferred on them as a district planning authority and as if the district were the area for which they are such an authority.

The following powers, that is to say—

those conferred on a local authority by or under section 92 of the 1949 Act (wardens), and

those conferred on a local authority by or under section 41 of the 1968 Act (byelaws),

so far as they are conferred in relation to any of the functions which by virtue of this section are functions of a National Park authority as respects the relevant Park, shall be exercisable by that authority and also, in the case of those conferred by or under section 41 of the 1968 Act, by a district council in relation to that council's functions by virtue of subsection (6)(b) above, but not by any other authority.

Section 104 of the 1949 Act (general provisions as to appropriation and disposal of land), except subsection (11), shall have effect as if references in that section to a local authority included references to a National Park authority.

For the purposes of any functions conferred on a National Park authority by virtue of this section references in any enactment to the area of the authority shall be construed as references to the relevant Park.

Section 68: Planning authority functions under National Parks legislation etc.

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