Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011

Supplementary provisions as to powers of entry

237.—(1) A person authorised or permitted under section 236 to enter upon any land—

(a) must, if so required, produce evidence of that person’s authority or of that person’s appointment as a member of the planning appeals commission and state the purpose of entry before so entering;

(b) must not demand admission as of right to any land which is occupied unless 3 days’ notice of the intended entry has been given to the occupier.

(2) Any person who wilfully obstructs a person acting in the exercise of powers under section 236 shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

(3) If any person who, in compliance with section 236, is admitted into a factory, workshop or work place discloses to any person any information obtained by the first-mentioned person as to any manufacturing process or trade secret, that person shall, unless the disclosure is made in the course of performing a duty in connection with the survey or estimate for which that person was authorised to enter the land, be guilty of an offence and liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum;

(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or a fine, or both.

(4) Where any property is damaged in the exercise of a right of entry conferred under section 236, or in the making of a survey for the purpose of which any such right of entry has been so conferred, compensation in respect of that damage may be recovered by any person interested in the property from the council on whose behalf the entry was effected or, as the case may be, the Department.

(5) Any question of disputed compensation recoverable under subsection (4) shall be determined by the Lands Tribunal.