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PART IIIStatus, operation and regulation of the tunnel system

Regulation of operation of the system

21Confirmation of byelaws by Secretary of State

(1)At least one month before making an application for confirmation of any byelaws under section 20 of this Act the Concessionaires shall publish notice of their intention to apply for confirmation and of the place at which and the time during which a copy of the byelaws will be open for public inspection—

(a)in such newspapers circulating in the City of Canterbury, the borough of Ashford and the districts of Dover, Shepway and Thanet, in the county of Kent; and

(b)in such other manner;

as may be approved by the Secretary of State.

(2)Any person affected by any of the byelaws shall be entitled to make representations on the byelaws to the Secretary of State within a period of not less than one month which must be specified in the notice published under subsection (1) above.

(3)For at least one month before the making of any such application a copy of the byelaws in question shall be deposited at such place or places as may be specified in a direction given to the Concessionaires by the Secretary of State and shall at all reasonable hours be open to public inspection free of charge.

(4)A copy of those byelaws, or any part of them, shall be supplied to any person on request on payment of such reasonable fee as the Concessionaires may determine.

(5)Subject to the following provisions of this section, the Secretary of State may confirm with or without modification, or refuse to confirm, any byelaws submitted to him for confirmation, and may fix the date on which a byelaw confirmed by him is to come into operation; and if no such date is so fixed the byelaw shall come into operation at the expiration of one month beginning with the date of its confirmation.

(6)The Secretary of State shall not confirm any byelaw submitted to him for confirmation unless he has consulted the Kent County Council and the council of any district in which it appears to him that the byelaw would have effect.

(7)Where the Secretary of State proposes to make a modification of any byelaws submitted to him for confirmation which appears to him to be substantial—

(a)he shall inform the Concessionaires and require them to take any steps he considers necessary for informing persons likely to be concerned with the modification; and

(b)he shall not confirm the byelaws until such period has elapsed as he thinks reasonable for consideration of, and comment upon, the proposed modification by the Concessionaires and by other persons who have been informed of it.