Town and Country Planning Act 1990

[F1 66 Notification of applications to owners and agricultural tenants. E+W

(1) Without prejudice to section 65, a local planning authority shall not entertain any application for planning permission unless it is accompanied by one of the following certificates signed by or on behalf of the applicant—

(a) a certificate stating that, at the beginning of the period of 21 days ending with the date of the application, no person (other than the applicant) was the owner of any of the land to which the application relates;

(b) a certificate stating that the applicant has given the requisite notice of the application to all the persons (other than himself) who at the beginning of that period were owners of any of the land to which the application relates, and setting out—

(i) the names of those persons,

(ii) the addresses at which notice of the application was given to them respectively, and

(iii) the date of service of each such notice;

(c) a certificate stating—

(i) that the applicant is unable to issue a certificate in accordance with paragraph (a) or (b),

(ii) that he has given the requisite notice of the application to such one or more of the persons mentioned in paragraph (b) as are specified in the certificate (setting out their names, the addresses at which notice of the application was given to them respectively, and the date of the service of each such notice), and

(iii) that he has taken such steps as are reasonably open to him (specifying them) to ascertain the names and addresses of the remainder of those persons but has been unable to do so;

(d) a certificate stating—

(i) that the applicant is unable to issue a certificate in accordance with paragraph (a), and

(ii) that he has taken such steps as are reasonably open to him (specifying them) to ascertain the names and addresses of the persons mentioned in paragraph (b) but has been unable to do so.

(2) Any such certificate as is mentioned in paragraph (c) or (d) of subsection (1) must also contain a statement that the requisite notice of the application, as set out in the certificate, has on a date specified in the certificate been published in a local newspaper circulating in the locality in which the land in question is situated.

(3) The date specified in a certificate under subsection (2) must not be earlier than the beginning of the period mentioned in subsection (1)(a).

(4) In addition to any other matters required to be contained in a certificate issued for the purposes of this section, every such certificate must contain a statement —

(a) that none of the land to which the application relates constitutes or forms part of an agricultural holding; or

(b) that the applicant has given the requisite notice of the application to every person (other than himself) who, at the beginning of the period mentioned in subsection (1)(a), was a tenant of any agricultural holding any part of which was comprised in the land to which the application relates.

(5) Such a statement as is mentioned in subsection (4)(b) must set out—

(a) the name of each person to whom the applicant has given notice of the application,

(b) the address at which notice was given to him, and

(c) the date of service of that notice.

(6) Where an application for planning permission is accompanied by such a certificate as is mentioned in subsection (1)(b),(c) or (d), or by a certificate containing a statement in accordance with subsections (4)(b) and (5), the local planning authority shall not determine the application before the end of the period of 21 days beginning with the date appearing from the certificate to be the latest of the dates of service of notices as mentioned in the certificate, or, if later, the date of publication of a notice as mentioned in the certificate.

(7) In this section—

• “ owner ”, in relation to any land, means a person who for the time being is—

(a) the estate owner in respect of the fee simple in the land, or

(b) entitled to a tenancy of the land granted or extended for a term of years certain of which not less than seven years remain unexpired; and

“ agricultural holding ” has the same meaning as in the M1 Agricultural Holdings Act 1986. ]