8.—(1) If an interested person notified under regulation 5(1) wishes to send representations to the National Assembly, that person must do so in order to ensure that those representations are received by it within 6 weeks of the starting date.
(2) The National Assembly must-
(a)send to the appellant and the local planning authority, as soon as practicable after receipt, a copy each of all of the representations received from interested persons; and
(b)specify a period of not less than 2 weeks within which any comments on the representations must be received.
(3) The National Assembly may disregard comments made by the local planning authority under paragraph 2(b) where the authority failed to notify interested persons in accordance with regulation 5.