Coast Protection Act 1949

46 Local inquiries

(1) The Minister or the Minister of Transport may cause a local inquiry to be held in any case where it appears to him to be advisable to do so in connection with any matter arising under this Act.

(2) Notice of any such inquiry shall be given in such manner as the Minister, or the Minister of Transport, as the case may be, may direct, and all persons interested shall be permitted to attend the inquiry and to be heard thereat.

(3) The provisions of subsections (2) to (5) of section two hundred and ninety of the Local Government Act, 1933 (which relate to evidence at local inquiries and to defraying the costs thereof) shall apply to all inquiries held under this Act:

Provided that subsection (4) of that section (which requires the Minister's costs of such an inquiry to be defrayed by the parties thereto) shall not apply in relation to any inquiry unless it is so directed by the Minister or Ministers at whose instance the inquiry is held.

(4) In the application of this section to Scotland, there shall be substituted for any reference to subsections (2) to (5) of section two hundred and ninety of the Local Government Act, 1933, a reference to subsection (2) and subsections (4) to (9) of section three hundred and fifty-five of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1947, and the proviso to subsection (3) of this section shall be omitted.

(5) Any inquiry in relation to an order under this Act affecting Scotland only, and which becomes in certain circumstances subject to special parliamentary procedure, shall, if the Minister or the Minister of Transport so directs, be held by Commissioners under the Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act, 1936, and where any direction is so given—

(a) it shall be deemed to have been given under section two, as read with section ten, of the Statutory Orders (Special Procedure) Act, 1945;

(b) if publication of notice in accordance with paragraph 1 of the First Schedule to this Act or paragraph 1 of the Second Schedule thereto, as the case may be, has been made, the provisions of subsection (1) of the aforesaid section two with regard to advertisement of notice shall be deemed .to have been complied with; and

(c) the provisions of subsection (3) of this section shall not apply to such inquiry.